It’s Worth Asking

From time to time, I will send those on my email list an article with the intent of soliciting their feedback or broadening their horizons. As if I could lend a hand in doing that! Nevertheless, when I find an article interesting, my hope is that they will also.

Exchanging ideas and wrestling with tough questions is often a lost art. Many people do not want to engage in dialog about challenging issues. Which is unfortunate.

A recent article I read questions the deity of Christ. Another appears to take the key tenants of scripture and transforms them into sociologically acceptable terms.  Both articles were intriguing – going down roads where my mind finds it hard to stay in step. Nevertheless, they push me to think and make decisions.

Reading the Bible is not a check-your-mind-at-the-door exercise. Whether we read it as part of our personal devotions or in preparation for teaching a Bible study or small group, keeping our mind engaged with the text is key to understanding.

This morning, for example, in my study of Luke, I found myself asking this question. “Who was with Jesus during those forty days in the wilderness while he was being tempted?” One would think somebody had to be there in order to originally present the account as a part of his life story.  It seems unlikely that Christ, somewhere down the line said…”This is what happened to me when I first began my ministry” and none of the Gospel writers record that teaching session. Then again, this may have been their recording of that teaching session.

Scripture is fascinating. It stretches my mind and heart when I think that a man like Luke would see it important enough to chronicle the life and ministry of Christ in order that “a friend” might have certainty about the things he has been taught regarding Christ. He may not tell everything, but after much research and prayer, he tells what he believes is important.

What might Theophilus have done with this information? Did he wait in anticipation of Luke’s next chronicle in order to get the whole story? Did he take what he read and bounce it up against what he had been taught and say, “Yes, that makes sense. It is exactly as I had heard when I came to faith in Christ.”

I listen intently to sermons and our Sunday School teachers. I bounce everything I hear up against the biblical text. Each phrase is filtered through what I have read, what I have learned, what I understand the text to be saying. It may sound corny, but the Bible should be shaping my belief system. My belief system should not be shaping the text. So it is indeed worth asking the questions that bring understanding. Just as Theophilus brought his questions to Luke. 

Father, may my mind and heart be open to Your Word. May I be a good student as well as a devoted follower of Your Son.

Luke the Blogger

I enjoy my blogs. In great part, I write them for personal enrichment. They help me put down in words, what is rattling around in my brain or tugging at my heart. At the same time they are accessible to thousands, even millions of people. Therefore, if someone gains value from reading them, I am pleased.

Blogs are everywhere and written by just about anyone. In some respects, they have replaced, or significantly altered, the use of Web sites. If one has a Web site, they almost must have a blog. People want to hear and interact with the thoughts of others. We don’t do that very well in person, for fear of offending someone, but we will do it in cyberspace.

Would Mark, Luke, or Paul have written blogs?

If Luke is accurate, and we have no reason to believe he was not, there were “many” writing good and accurate chronicles or accounts of the life and ministry of Christ – perhaps even the early years of the church. However, he sees it as important to put together an orderly, somewhat chronological account of these events. Not just so he can express himself, rather that he might assist Theophilus with understanding what he has heard concerning the Christ.

Having investigated and “traced out” these writings, complimented by his own experience, Luke sets out to compile an orderly account in order that Theophilus, or whomever would read it, would have certainty concerning the things they had been taught. In many regards, this is the first discipling program outlined in the NT.

It seems that often Church discipleship programs are focused on church order, doctrine, and determining one’s gift(s).  Here Luke indicates that what is important is knowing Christ! His life, his way of thinking and doing. After all, that is the intent of being a disciple – knowing Christ and reflecting him.

I suspect I would have been a subscriber to Luke’s blog. He would be talking about what I need to know about – Jesus Christ.

My Prayer

Father,

I am struggling today – not unlike most days. My heart wants to rest in your presence and praise you but my mind is racing frantically to and fro jumping from one thought to another. Each question, each idea , each want or desire brings on its back another question, idea, want or desire. It seems overwhelming at times.

Are these types of things temptations or tests?  Is my heart being tried in the midst of chaos to determine whether I can bring it into submission and rest in You? Or are these temptations  blocking moves from the Evil One, forcing my attention away from You and on to other things?

Learning to sort this out that I might discover and abide in the joy of Your presence is my prayer today.

Amen

The Vow

To the Lord I vow

My only recourse now

The enemy knows

He works to bring me low

 

Making a vow seems easier

Easier somehow than self restraint

To violate the vow is not an option

To work around it, that’s something else

 

Common sense

Rational behavior

Uncommon thinking

Irrational thoughts

 

Behavior is a choice

The way of the will

Poor behavior brings remorse

The way of the conscience

 

Choosing joy means

Choosing new thoughts

Living joy means

Living new actions

 

Can I sustain it

Not alone

Can I refrain from it

In Him alone

 

To the Lord I vow

My only recourse now

The enemy knows

He works to bring me low

 

Hang on my fellow pilgrim.

Where’s the Power?

I am always intrigued when I read the gospel accounts of what many call the “end times.”  What fascinates me is that the simple fact the Jesus seems to know most everything that will happen except the “day or that hour.” I don’t know whether that is because, as some commentators would say, he is limited by his man nature and not able to exercise his divine nature. Which seems odd, when he clearly seems to be exercising his divine nature to discuss everything up to that point. Nevertheless…

What I am noodling is this…if there were no “end times” as we often here it discussed and preached today, would the gospel still have saving power? If preachers stripped away the threat of the second coming and being caught asleep when Christ returns, would the simple gospel of justification by grace still have power?

Many of you may recall, or may still experience, that evangelistic question, “If you died today, do you know where you would spend eternity?” That is the lead in for many an evangelist when presenting the gospel. But what value does that have? Yes, I know it has value from the standpoint of heaven and hell, but what value does that have for someone to believe the gospel? Is the good news simply a safety net?

If Christ has not returned for almost two thousand years now, is there really any reason for me to believe that he will return today or tomorrow, or next week? Shouldn’t my motive be to live in relationship to Christ because of grace, abundant living, joy, thankfulness and a reconciling peace with God NOW? I suspect in some regard, that is why the “prosperity gospel” has so much success, because it offers incentive for living in the now, not the then.

If you have made it this far, let me say clearly, the second coming of Christ is a part of my belief system. My question lies simply in this “where’s the power” of the Gospel?

I believe the power of the Gospel is in the glorious news of justification by grace, through faith. That salvation is grace and peace, joy and the desire to fulfill and flesh-out the wonderful truth that God is one, there is no other, and to love my neighbor. Both of which I am incapable of doing on my own, it is only through Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. If that puts me in good stead for the second coming of Christ, thank God!