5/31/09 - 2 Corinthians 3

Freedom. The human soul desires it more than almost anything. Just the mention of freedom springs forth hope and life in all of us. The state of humanity is such that everyone desperately needs freedom, whether its from addiction, abuse, poverty, depression, debt, loneliness, money, or even sports. It's truly a glorious thing to experience freedom from any of these things. I believe that there's a longing in all of us, believers and non-believers alike, to be free from this world - a longing for something better, something more real.

Chapter 3 discusses the superiority of the 'spirit' of the law over the 'letter' of the Law. The letter of the law, a.k.a. the law of Moses (including but not limited to the ten commandments), required so much from us that Paul went far enough to say that it "kills us" (v. 6). The Law required total righteousness from us and without it, we would stand condemned.

"Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law..." (Romans 3:19-20).

With this righteous requirement and our conflicting inability to live perfectly, Paul concludes that the Law brings death. This isn't to say that the Law itself is evil or even useless to us. The Law brings death in a similar way that the law of gravity can bring death - if you test this law from too high an altitude, it will surely produce death. In either case, it's our choice to defy it that brings death, not the Law itself. These laws simply point out the consequences of our actions. (Galatians 3:19-24, Romans 5, Romans 6, Romans 7:7-12)

The Israelites used to worship and rejoice at the mere reading of the Law (Nehemiah 8:3, 5-6). Moses face actually had a glow around it after he encountered God's word (Exodus 34:29). So if this Law, which leads to death, was found to be this glorious, how much more should the should the Law of the Spirit? The Law of the Spirit, that of the new covenant found through the death & resurrection of Christ, now offered life. The new covenant gives us the righteousness, through Christ's shed blood, the Law could never give (Romans 5:18-21). It relieves us of the restrictions of the Law. It offers to us a relationship with our creator, rather than a strict adherence to rules. It invites us to fall in love with Jesus, who loved us first. It gives us freedom.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (v. 17).

This freedom we have as Christians isn't a pass to do whatever we want and fall back on the old "I'm saved anyway" excuse. That would be the opposite of freedom in that we re-submit ourselves to the slavery of sin. This is the freedom that frees us to worship God without rules and regulations. Its the freedom to eat, dress, talk, watch movies, have fun, or do whatever, as you like without falling into the trap of allowing these 'liberties' to overshadow God or fail to bring Him glory.

God, thank you for freeing me. You know how I am so don't let me abuse my freedom. In all I do, allow me to honor You.

5/29 - 2 Corinthians 2

After 1 Corinthians, Paul made a visit to Corinth that was apparently none too pleasant. He addressed them in person, and then by letter (v. 4), because one of the members there had openly insulted him and possibly the entire church since they felt it necessary to punish him (v. 6). There were likely other items of contention with the Corinthians that he addressed in that letter (7:8-9) but he wrote it in love so that the church could be approved in their faithfulness. And now in this letter, he offers his forgiveness and suggest anyone else who was offended by this certain individual to do the same.

The key for this chapter for me was understanding that everything in the church will not be all peachy, and clearly hasn't always been from the beginning. And not only that, if we're not careful we allow Satan room to wreak havoc.

"Now who you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices." (v. 10-11).

Here I see a few strategies we can use that will preserve our joy and keep the enemy where he belongs - under our feet. First, we see acceptance of others' forgiveness. Paul was willing to forgive who they forgave. I think there's power in the testimony of others that once we see another believer able to do something as powerful as forgiveness, we then are encouraged about the possibility of trying something like that ourselves. I know my wife has very quickly forgiven me of some things I've admitted that I had no expectation of her forgiving. The power in that is not only do we grow closer, but it increases my willingness to forgive.

The other key aspect of this verse for me was the acknowledgement of who our true enemy is. When we've been offended it's easy to view the offender as the enemy but in doing so, we fall right into one of Satan's devices. As a professional deceiver, he uses our ignorance of him to take advantage of us. He would love nothing more than to be able to control our lives with spite, anger, lust, etc without us even knowing it's him who's doing it. So the last line of this passage becomes important - "for we are not ignorant of his devices." We must know our enemy. We can see in the Word examples of confusion, deception, discord, and pain all brought on by the enemy and if we're not careful, we do something silly like blame others or worse, God. [Sports analogy alert] Every year I see my Bengals suffer at the hands of a certain AFC North team because of the deception in their blitz packages. It's not that we don't know that they're coming after the quarterback, its that we don't know how they're coming. We know that Satan is out for us (1 Peter 5:8) but if we're looking in the wrong place (like other people and God) we'll never stop him.

God, as I walk with you today don't let me be deceived. I face so many daily distractions and I pray that Your Word, that is hidden in me, will allow me to discern Your will for me. I pray for a heart to forgive those who offend me, just as you forgave me.

5/28 - 2 Corinthians 1

Paul opens this chapter with his normal greeting and then quickly turns to address the topics of suffering. He had a fairly close relationship with the Corinthians, having visited multiple times and written three letters, and knew the struggles they dealt with as new believers. He writes:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (v. 3-4)

There's no doubt that we'll face trouble in this life but thank God for His love for us. At work, at home, or even in our ministries there's always something there to discourage us but Paul knew, as we should know, that God will sustain and strengthen us. Through all the difficulties in life, we can find comfort in God's promises for, in verse 20, "all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us." I can struggle with finances, but thank God for His promise to supply all my needs. I struggle with various worldly temptations but praise God for His promise to give me strength to overcome it.

Now, God's comfort is not an end in itself - it also carries the purpose that we might ourselves become comforters. This is why so much power can be found in the testimonies of other people. Just knowing that someone else has gone through what you are going through now is powerful enough to cause you to change. I've experienced it, and it's truly a comforting thing to know that there is hope to overcome. So as Paul addresses the Corinthians, he gives his own testimony of his suffering in Asia (v. 8-10) where he was convinced he would die but was delivered by God, the same God who they now serve. The comfort comes in the fact that the Corinthians were partakers in his suffering, but just as Paul had experienced, they would be partakers in God's consolation (v. 7)

So I suppose that we can use God's promises as ammunition against the enemy who would have us discouraged in the midst of trying times. If God won't put more on us than we can bear, we can look tribulation in the face confident that there is a way out, not only for us but for the body of believers with whom we share this faith and can be encouraged by our testimony. Let's be reminded today of what God has brought us out of and share that with someone today, for their comfort.

Crazy Love - Deuteronomy 6

The chorus of "The Motions" by Matthew West have been in my head this week:

"I don't wanna go through the motions

I don't wanna go one more day

Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,

"What if I had given everything,

instead of going through the motions?"

Take a listen or view the song lyrics - it's a beautiful song.

I mentioned before that we've been studying from a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan in the Bible study at my church (World Outreach Christian Church). Francis lays out, in this week's chapter, a profile of what he calls "the obsessed" and one characteristic is a person with "committed, settled, passionate love for God, above and before every other thing and every other being." This fits well with Deuteronomy 6 which gives us the commandment:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up." (v. 5-7)

In light of the song that's been in my head, Chan's 'obsessed' description and this scripture verse...let's just say I see room for growth. One example would be that 'when I lied down and when I rose up' this morning, I was thinking about the Cav's game and how LeBron almost made that shot. Another is how a mysterious sleepiness overtakes me when I attempt Bible study. I don't get sleepy doing any of the 10 things I'd rather be doing. And I know it's possible to get there - to actually desire God and be excited about meeting with Him every morning and being renewed each day by His Spirit and walking with Him every moment. I want to be like the man the psalmist talks about - "Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97). I want that!!!

Getting to that place requires sacrifice. The things that we cling to here on earth...I'm finding that if we're not willing to let them go, and we desire them more than God, its time to let them go. The first commandment clues us in on this point. Getting to the place where we have passionate love for God isn't going to be easy, but I think it would please God. This type of love isn't reserved for radical, Super-Christians either. It's the least we could do for a God who loves us so much. I felt it this morning when I went to the pantry and actually couldn't find the tea I was looking for because there was so much other food in the way! In the midst of all the blessings I enjoy everyday, this one stuck out. God loves me so much. Just take a look around, He loves you so much too.

My meditation for the day comes from West's song: What if I give everything? What's holding me back? What will that look like?

5/26/09 - 1 Corinthians 16, Part 2

This chapter of 1 Corinthians addresses appropriate ways of acknowledging those who labor in the faith for the benefit of the church. Paul makes some requests on his own behalf and also exhorts other brothers (Timothy, Apollos, Stephanus, etc) who would serve the Corinthians while giving instructions on how to treat them. The key takeaways, however, that I drew from this chapter were addressed more indirectly. The first I discussed yesterday and the second is found in verses 8 and 9:

"But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries."

The study notes in my Bible explain that perhaps no new testament church had such fierce opposition as the one in Ephesus. In Acts 19:23-41 we see the story of an Ephesian idol maker who caused an uproar among the people because Paul preached that the idols were not gods and had no power, and therefore cutting right into his revenue stream. 2 Corinthians 1: 8-10 also describes trouble he faced in this region. In the face of all this, Paul's response was to delay his trip to Corinth because 'a great and effective door' had opened. Here's where the challenge is: when we encounter people who don't have much concern for God and may even be a little hostile toward Him, do we view that as an opportunity or as an uncomfortable moment we'd rather avoid?

God, let me be aware of such opportunities today. As I encounter co-workers and strangers who do not know you today, grant me a spirit of boldness to take the time to share the gospel, or even a word of encouragement, with them instead of taking my usual course of action - nothing. Produce in me a willingness to mention you, even when the situation seems uncomfortable. You said that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Let me be Your voice today, proclaiming your truth.

5/25 - 1 Corinthians 16, Part 1

Praise God for a holiday! I mean, I love having a job and all, but ain't nothing wrong with a day off. Shout out to all the troops who have lost their lives and those who currently risk their lives for this country. Today's chapter has an exhortation for them - "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong" (v. 13).

Today is a reminder for me that no chapter in the Bible should be taken lightly. The final chapter in Paul's letters is usually a bunch of final instructions and what you could consider 1st century shout-outs. I usually just breeze through them, and today I had full intentions on skimming through this last chapter to get to a chapter that had some 'real meat.' Silly me...I suppose God isn't as arbitrary as I played Him off to be. Every word in the Bible is there for a reason.

Never knew this before, but verses 1 - 2 is where the modern church gets the concept of worshipping on the first day of the week and giving offerings on a weekly basis. It also hits on a concept that is left open to interpretation (likely on purpose in my opinion). Verse 2 reads: "On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, so that there be no collections when I come"

There's actually no specified amount of giving in the New Testament. Paul suggests giving "as you may prosper." There's several ways you can take that information, but I'd venture to say that it encourages us to give more rather than less. Most struggle with this but for some, giving 10% of their income is not much of a sacrifice and is rather easy to give up. In all honesty, I'll add myself to the latter group and offer the encouragement not to get satisfied with your offering. We tend to give as long as it doesn't impinge on our standard of living. This probably isn't sacrifice. And by probably, I mean definitely. Consider this verse:

"King David replied to Araunah, 'No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing" - (1 Chronicles 21:24)

When we get a raise, pay off a bill, get a tax return, or in other words "as we may prosper," are we considering how much more we're able to give with our newly found income? Consider the fact that, even if you have none of these sort of boosts in income, you're living in America and are still pretty prosperous. God deserves a meaningful sacrifice, not just the extra that we may get or, in other words, our leftovers. We just reviewed this concept in a recent Bible study and that was about the part I started feeling really convicted. Not saying you should....I'm just sayin'. It's easy to fall into the 'I'll tithe when I hit the numbers' spirit, but when we consider that all we have is from the Lord, it is a very reasonable response to offer Him back a little thanks in the form of sacrifice. Not what you will be able to do, but what you can do right now.

My prayer today is that God will work on my heart, that 'as I prosper' I'll be moved to worship and willingly give Him a meaningful sacrifice. That I will fully buy in to the concept that everything truly belongs to God and that my material desires don't compare to what He has in store for those who love Him. I pray for the desire to even want to love God like that. That I'll learn from King David and never again consider offering God something that costs me nothing. Father, you're way more valuable than I've given you credit for. Thank you for this lesson. In Jesus name.

5/24 - 1 Corinthians 15, Part 2

Good morning. So after reading the chapter again, it's evident that the resurrection is kind of a big deal. It's a key component (if not the key component) of the story of our salvation, and it can't be fully appreciated without going back to the beginning, as Paul does in this chapter. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive" (v. 22). The fall of man occurs in Genesis 3 where, through Adam, sin first enters the world. God has made it clear that the only way He can deal with sin is with a death sentence.

"but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you surely shall die" - Gen 2:17

"For the wages of sin is death..." - Romans 6:23

Now I hope I haven't lost your interest yet because now I'm talking about the vengeful God who's always looking for something to get us with. That's not the point, nor is it what I believe. God is so holy, He can't tolerate the mere presence of sin which is why He can't just allow us to sweep sin under the rug and let us get away with 'just a little guilty pleasure' every once in a while. In Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, John Piper describes God's holiness:

"God is holy in His absolute uniqueness. Everything else belongs to a class. We are human; Rover is a dog; the oak is a tree; Earth is a planet; the Milky Way is one of a billion galaxies; Gabriel is an angel; Satan is a demon. But only God is God. And therefore He is holy, utterly different, distinct, unique...He alone is self-sufficient. And therefore the holiness of God is synonymous with His infinite value."

When you think about it, only a God this holy is truly worthy of worship. Imagine bringing your sins, big or small, before a God like this. Ok, God didn't really need my defense there, but we'll keep going.

So when sin enters the world, death had this amazing power over humanity in that every man would now have to face it...and lose. Through Adam, because we're born in sin, we all die. So now we have Christ, who was conceived without sin, would live a sinless life and was therefore eligible to be a perfect sacrifice whereby we can receive the life mentioned at the end of verse 22. The resurrection was proof that, first off Jesus wasn't a liar, and secondly that death was once and for all defeated. He actually came back from death. Without the resurrection, death still has it's grip on us, salvation is impossible, and the hope we have is futile. So, my takeaways from chapter 15:

1. I didn't discuss it much, but this chapter also talks about the heavenly bodies that believers will inherit upon is return. I'm so looking forward to that day, sounds like it'll be pretty tight.

2. Until that day, it might behoove me to tell a person or two about this Jesus who has eternal life waiting for those who will come to redeem it.

3. I thank God fairly often for His sacrifice on the cross, but not nearly enough for His resurrection. Thank you Lord, just for getting up that day.

5/23 - 1 Corinthians 15, Part 1

Wow, chapter 15 is a mouthful. This chapter is so loaded with theology I'm sure an entire book should be dedicated to it so bear with me as I attempt to briefly share my thoughts on it.

This chapter is primarily focused on the reality of the resurrection of Christ and it's implications for those who believe. In fact, it is central to the belief system of a believer. He makes this polarizing statement, "...if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty." If some guy shows up on CNN one day with indisputable evidence that he has found the body of Christ, then it's pretty much over or me (and the rest of Christianity). There would have to be a fundamental reset of everything I ever believed about God, life, it's meaning, who I am, my morality....pretty much everything. Essentially, this would be the kryptonite for the faith - if you can disprove the resurrection, it's all over.

So, given this vulnerability to the faith, Paul gives us some evidence for believing the resurrection to be true. Paul opens with this synopsis of the gospel -

"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Peter, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to be present, but some have fallen asleep" (v. 3-7)

Jesus was actually seen by people after the resurrection. If the evidence of Peter, the apostles and Paul was not enough, because admittedly they could be seen as biased parties, there were 500 more people who saw Him...and most are still alive! That would be like me making a claim that I saw LeBron James (amazing shot last nite by the way) in an airport with 500 of my friends as witnesses. How easy would it be to check the validity of my story? Then, considering that many of these witnesses would go on to face intense persecution and die horrible deaths, all in the name of this Man who supposedly rose from the dead. I find it pretty inconceivable that all these people would die while holding on to a lie.

So the resurrection, therefore, gives us hope. If Jesus is truly risen, then we're no longer in our sins, death is defeated, the validity of Christ's life is still in tact, and we have our own resurrection to look forward to. I'll dig more into this tomorrow. Had to break this up into at least part 1 and 2. I told yall chapter 15 was a mouthful.

5/22, 1 Corinthians 13

Well first off, welcome to my first blog. It's something I've wanted to do for a while but just never thought I'd have the time for or a good enough reason to do it. But I've changed my routine a bit and should be blogging at least once/day so feel free to check in frequently as I'll try to keep fresh content on here. So, here we go...

I've been studying 1 Corinthians and today brings me to chapter 13, the infamous love chapter. So let me just say, I love you guys! This isn't an unfamiliar passage for most but to briefly sum it up, it gives a comprehensive definition of what true love is. It's not just your actions (v. 1-3) because even if you save 1000 babies from 1000 buildings but don't have love, it profits nothing. God is always looking at the intent of our hearts over our actions and while that may sound a bit crass, esp for those of you with baby-building-saving experience, its actually an example of God's grace to us. We might be able to flaunt our counterfeit love here on earth but God knows whats up.

As I look at verses 4-7, the only accurate depiction of such a perfect love is our God. Love is longsuffering and kind....God dealt with the Israelites' constant betrayal for hundreds of years, and while He didn't spare them the rod (because he loves them of course) the amazing thing is how He went out of His way to keep blessing them, so much so that He would ultimately sacrifice His own Son for this rowdy bunch. Many of us can't imagine even sacrificing a smile to a co-worker who we think has somehow wronged us. Love endures all things....a focused reading of the end of any of the gospels (or an extensive viewing of The Passion of the Christ) would just about help you get the point here.

In my bible study, we've been going through a study called Crazy Love by Francis Chan, which I'd highly recommend. Chan describes how God ties together two of God's greatest commandments from Matthew 22:36-39 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength" and "Love your neighbor as yourself." Then in chapter 25, in response to those asking how we can serve God, we hear Jesus say "'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." So the challenge then becomes for us to treat everyone we meet the same way we would treat Jesus, because it's clear from these verses that this is how we will be judged. I challenge you to think about the implications of such an exercise and how that could change your life. This includes, but is not limited to, the lady in the grocery store with 100 items in the '12 items or less' lane, the slow guy in the fast lane with his blinker on and on his cell phone, Pittsburgh Steelers fans, and other such people we may generally find despicable (sorry Steeler fan, I'm genuinely working on trying to love you).

As many of you may know I just recently found out I'm going to be a father. For a while it was kinda surreal and was a really cool thing that was happening in my life. But when I first heard the heartbeat and then saw the sonograms, I was in love. Now you parents with fully-developed, out-of-womb children likely understand this more fully but I'm starting to get a glimpse of what an unconditional love feels like. My prayer today is that each day I grow in the type of love described in 1 Cor 13. That I can be more patient, kind and enduring with my wife and our new child. That the motive behind my works would be love and not attention. That I become less judgemental and begin to view others as Christ does - people worthy of love and found worthy of a Saviour.