Will this building fall down?

Modern Christianity is a shaky building. This is because its basic framing, meaning its beliefs, theology, and focus, is set on a poor foundation. Because of this, modern Christianity is an askew, out of alignment, wobbly structure that falls down around people in times of stress. And by the way, I have seen this failure often, including in my own life, as people try to find rest in modern Christianity.

The truth is that modern Christianity is built on the foundation of Moses. Because of this, modern Christianity tries to copy what Moses told ancient Israel to do rather than to look to the One Moses was pointing to. Furthermore, even when modern Christianity talks about grace, love, and faith, it does so from the foundation of Moses. So, no matter how glitzy the church service, how detailed the program, or how compelling the apocryphal testimony, modern Christianity cannot be the straight, solid, well supported faith it claims to be, as it relies on unstable human effort to get the job done.

In contrast, the faith once, and for all, and for all time delivered to the saints is a straight, solid, well supported building where God lives. It also brings hope, comfort, and full acceptance from God to all who believe. Furthermore, the reason the authentic faith succeeds in doing this is that it has the correct foundation. This foundation is not what we do, but it is the very God who created all things and who can and does save all things. As Paul told the Ephesians about their standing with God:

Eph 2:19-22--Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (KJV)

Yes, Jesus Christ, the chief corner stone for all believers, is the foundation of the apostles and prophets. As such, I encourage you to rely on this foundation. He is the one who can and does save you--past, present, and future. And He is so stable and solid that you can rest with Him forever without the fear of His building falling down around you.

Until next time, may you see Jesus living in you always!

Richard

Seven Voices--One Faith

When Paul, John, Luke with Acts, the writer of Hebrews, James, Peter, and Jude penned the writings that make up the New Covenant section of the Bible, they used a simple yet profound approach. You see, they were "believe in the name of Jesus Christ" and "love one another" guys. With this approach, they were able to expound the new exciting faith revealed to them by Jesus Christ.

In so performing their duties as instructors of the New Covenant, they did things much different from what modern Christianity does these days. For instance, they, including (surprising to our modern minds) Luke, did not quote even one of the parables (which are all Old Covenant parables) from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They also did not accept the idea that humans can do good works to influence God's opinion of them. And they rejected the idea that the law of Moses and any other rule system can control human conduct.

However, what these writers did believe centered on the very presence (name) of Jesus Christ in their lives, and this presence led them to conclude that it is God who does all the work of salvation--past, present, and future--for each and every believer. Furthermore, this work of salvation by God embraces every aspect of our being--spirit, soul, and body. It is as Paul told the Thessalonians:

1Thes 5:23-24--And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. (KJV)

Simply put, these guys understood the operative force in the salvation game, and they understood that it is not us. Instead, they looked to and relied completely on their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You know, this sounds like a good idea to me. In fact, it sounds like the faith once and for all and for all time delivered to the saints.

Until next time, may you see Jesus living in you always!

Richard

Which Grace?

Christianity often talks about grace. But which grace is it talking about? You see, there is Old Covenant grace, and there is New Covenant grace.

Old Covenant grace was based on a continual begging of God to forgive as each sin of life was encountered. Therefore, sacrifices were continually needed to gain forgiveness and therefore a state of grace. However, people being people, this state could not be maintained. So what was produced was a running back and forth seeking a conditional illusive grace from God. As the writer of Hebrews says:

Heb 10:1-4--For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. (KJV)

Sadly, this impossible to maintain grace is what most churches teach these days. Only instead of repeatedly offering animal sacrifices, a small "Jesus" is offered up over and over again in a weak attempt to satisfy the law's demand. In contrast, New Covenant grace is achieved through a once and for all and for all time sacrifice offered by the huge Jesus. As the writer of Hebrews also says:

Heb 9:11-12--But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (KJV)

So, please be alert to the two types of grace. Old Covenant grace will never get the job done. However, New Covenant grace continually gets the job done because Jesus has already done the deal for you. Please rest in this grace and rejoice in your complete redemption through Jesus Christ.

Until next time, may you see Jesus living in you always!

Richard

Guaranteed entry to the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Sermon on the Mount is often used as a manual on how to please God through over the top law keeping, and this approach seems justified by the way preachers quote the Sermon. You see, most preachers quote small bits of the Sermon, but in so doing miss the overall theme. This overall theme is illustrated by Jesus' statements in the Sermon and its follow-ups about how we humans can get into the Kingdom of Heaven. With this in mind, please note what Jesus said about the law in His kickoff to the Sermon:

Matt 5:19-20--Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (NIV)

So, we find that the law is still around and that it is very demanding. We also see that our righteous obedience to the law must exceed that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, or we won't get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Well, humans are not very good at keeping the law. Therefore, everyone is excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven by this measure.

But the Sermon goes on from here and concludes with some key follow-ups. One of these follow-ups is when the centurion, who would as the chief Roman official of the area have known what Jesus said in the Sermon, asked for healing for his servant. Well, Jesus agreed to heal the servant. But the centurion protested that he was not worthy. Therefore:

Matt 8:10-13--When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour. (NIV)

The message of the Sermon is clear. By using the law, no one will be judged worthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. However, through Christ's faith and belief, many people will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Thank God for that!

Until next time, may you see Jesus living in you always!

Richard

Hanging Out With God

In this world, the word love is bandied about a great deal. Yet, when love is put into practice on the human level, it often is just a one-sided, self-serving tool used to cater to all sorts of passions, lusts, and desires of the flesh. But how does God view love? Well, if we are to understand love from God's viewpoint, it is important to hear what the apostle of love (John) has to say about this matter.

You see, love is a big deal for John, and he does say that God is love (1 John 4:8.) Furthermore, believers are to embrace this love, which John interprets for believers as obeying the commandments of God (1 John 5:3.) But in so mentioning commandments, John does not mean the Ten Commandments or the Great Commandments of Matthew 22. Instead, John means to believe in the name of Jesus Christ and to show love for those who share that belief (1 John 3:23.) When this type of obedience comes forth, an amazing miracle is shown to believers by the Holy Spirit. This miracle is the very presence of Jesus Christ within each believer (1 John 3:24) and by extension in everyone else. And guess who comes along with Jesus? Well, it is the Father Himself. As John says:

1 John 1:1-3--We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (NLT)

For us in our limiting humanness, love therefore plays out as a participation in the relationship the Father has with the Son, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, this love is available to everyone,and this reality does temper how we view the other guy--even the difficult other guy! In addition, as we participate in fellowship with God in this life and into eternity, we come to appreciate and understand more God's love that let God give Himself to save us from our great darkness. In other words, God's love involves hanging out with Him and His friends forever.

Until next time, may you see Jesus living in you always!

Richard

Disgusting Humans?

Modern Christianity has by and large embraced the idea that God is disgusted with humans and surely can't put up with us very well. So the idea is that we must be purged over time and through our own efforts in the hope that one day we will cast off our humanness and be accepted by God in some sort of "other than human" form. But is God really disgusted with humans? Well, I submit that He is not disgusted with us humans. And this is demonstrated by three facts.

1. Jesus Christ entered the human form and walked in that form for thirty some odd years. As Paul told the Philippians about Jesus Christ:

Phil 2:7-8--but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! (NIV)

2. Jesus Christ permeates all humans. As Paul said to the Athenians about the work of God:

Acts 17:27-28--God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' (NIV)

3. Jesus Christ, even as fully God now, is also still a human. As Paul told Timothy:

1 Timothy 2:5--For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, (NIV)

Or as this statement can be rendered:

1 Timothy 2:5--There is one God and one mediator so that human beings can reach God. That way is through Christ Jesus, who is himself human. (NCV)

The fact is God is not disgusted with humans. Instead, He is in the process of redeeming them and pulling them out of great darkness. So please live confidently as a human. God is obviously not put off by humans.

Until next time, may you see Jesus living in you always!

Richard

On To The Moon!

"My dear child. You know that bike I bought for you last year? Well, I have decided that you must take that bike and ride it to the moon and back. This must be done today, and if you don't succeed, don't bother coming back home!" How would you have felt if when you were a child your father told you this? Well, I dare say that most of us would have felt quite discouraged.

Now I present this question to you because this type of message permeates modern Christianity. You see, modern Christianity loves to tell its followers to do things that are nothing more than commands to do the impossible in a world that is so convoluted and confusing as to make doing the impossible absolutely impossible. Furthermore, God's acceptance is portrayed as conditioned on doing these things. An example of this approach is when a preacher says that God's forgiveness is conditioned on your being able to forgive from the heart everyone who has hurt you. This whole business is like telling someone to ride to the moon and back on a bike in one day. It also effectively kills the work of Jesus within.

And of course, the underlying feeling, whether from church teen or old church geezer, produced by all this is one of discouragement. Sadly, this type of reaction is what many who speak for the modern faith seem to want. Furthermore, please realize that these teachers have not made it to the moon either as they can't, don't, and/or won't do what they command others to do. It all rather reminds me of what Jesus said to the law crowd many years ago:

John 7:19--Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?" (NIV)

However, please remember that the true Christian message does not require these "to the moon" activities. Instead, it teaches that Jesus LIVES in you so that you can travel through this silly life knowing through belief that you are already "on the moon" with God. So please take comfort in this truth. It is the basis of the faith that was once and for all time and for all people delivered to the saints of old.

Until next time, may you see Jesus living in you always!

Richard