Word of God more important than freedom?

"All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against."
- I Timothy 6:1

If I'm reading this right Paul is saying that the honor and reputation of the Word of God is more important than the freedom of slaves that are believers in Christ.

Would you agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think.

PS I don't think this is a case for dismissing Christian Social Action

Perspectives on the World Christian Movement - #`2 The Great Commandment and the Great Commission

In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus states that the Greatest Commandment is total love for God which will express itself in selfless love of one's neighbor. All of God's commandments are summed up in this.

In Matthew 28:18-20 declared to all his disciples that He had universal authority, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them ina the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So how do the Great Commandment and the Great Commission work together? Are they merely two different ways of expressing the same mandate?

While certainly much could be said about how they complement each other there is one major distinction that must be pointed out.

The Great Commandment will never be completed. We will be loving God and our redeemed neighbors in heaven for eternity.

The Great Commission however will be fulfilled and will eventually become history. As pointed out in the previous post, the Great Commission's fulfillment is founded on God's promise to "bless all the nations", a promise reiterated by Jesus Himself (Matthew 24:14). There is a linear point in history where the Great Commission will become the Great Fulfillment.
We are closer than ever to that point.
As you strive for faithfulness to the Great Commandment, may you be used by God to complete the Great Commission.

Perspectives on the World Christian Movement - #`1 The Living God is a Missionary God

A few weeks ago I began taking the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class offered through the U.S. Center for World Mission. So far the class has been mind and heart blowing. It is so encouraging, convicting and motivating to be in a theology class and actually get excited about God! I also am enjoying this class because of all the connections it has been making for me. I came out of seminary knowing how to exegete, exposit and preach a passage, but this class is helping me see the big picture of how God is working in the world to bring people to Him. I can now say without hesitation that God is a missionary God and that everything He has revealed about Himself is connect to that purpose.
I hope to post some thoughts from time to time about what I am learning in this class.
To get us started let's look at the Abrahamic Covenant in Gen 12:1-3:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”

Previously when I thought of missions the texts that would first come to my mind were the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20 and Acts 1:7-8. I thought of mission almost exclusively as a New Testament phenomenon. Studying this passage changed that. I saw that missions is not something that Jesus made up but that Jesus fulfilled and enabled. I was profoundly impacted by the statement, coming from the Abrahamic Covenent, “Missions is not a duty or a task, it is a promise”. God promises that He will use His people to bless the world and through Jesus (the seed of Abraham) not only does the world receive that blessing but Gentiles like us are able to be included in that blessing (Gen 3:14), which in turns enables us to be bearers of that blessing to the rest of the unreached world.

God will keep His promise to bless all the nations through the seed of Abraham, the question is will we surrender ourselves to be used to fulfill that promise, or will we choose to miss out on God's exhilirating work of redemption in this world.

blessed to be a blessing,
jrf

Nehemiah 8-9

I had the privilege to preach for the English Congregation this Sunday. Below for your reading and Bible study enjoyment is the outline of my sermon on Nehemiah 8-9.

IV. Prerequisites for Understanding the Word of God
1. Hunger for it
2. Put yourself in a postion to receive and respond to it
3. Work at it until it’s meaning is made clear
V. 7 Necessary and Inevitable Responses to Understanding the Word of God
1. Understanding the Word of God must devastate you (8:9)

2. Understanding the Word of God must cause you to celebrate (8:10-12)

3. Understanding the Word of God must create compassionate fellowship (8:10-12)

4. Understanding the Word of God must produce obedience (8:13-17)

5. Understanding the Word of God must realign your religious traditions (8:17-18)

6. Understanding the Word of God must move you to confess your sins (9:1-4)

7. Understanding the Word of God must bring about a renewal of Covenant Faithfulness (9:5-38)

FINISH THE PRAYER! PUT YOUR HISTORY IN THERE! CONFESS THE WAYS YOU HAVE TURNED YOUR BACK ON GOD, AND REMEMBER THE WAYS THAT HE HAS DRAWN YOU BACK TO HIM!
NO GREATER EXPRESSION OF GOD’S LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS AND INEXHAUSTIBLE GRACE THAN THE PERSON AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST!

Take this time to respond to God’s Word. Hopefully God has made some things clear to you this morning. This is an opportunity to express to Him in writing how His word has Devastated you, Given you Joy, inspired you to seek and maintain compassionate fellowship, how it has produced in you a desire to live a life of radical obedience (get specific), caused you to rethink and reflect on your religious traditions, how it has moved you to confess your sins, and how the inexhaustible Love and Grace of God has given you a foundation by which you can renew your promises of faithfulness to Him.

Jesus and Psalm 90:14

I have been preparing for a sermon series in Youth Group called, "Portraits of Jesus". My goal is to present Jesus to the Youth the way the Bible does, which is not the way we normally think of Jesus. Too often we pick the things we like about Jesus and ignore the rest. Youth in the church grow up with a Jesus-lite and Youth outside the church get their ideas of Jesus from MTV or worse sources. My goal is to confront them with the real Jesus and see what happens. Should be fun.
A huge benefit of this series is that I get to spend all of my study time learning about my favorite person, Jesus Christ. Hopefully this time won't just be learing about Jesus through reading what other people think they know about Jesus but will also be a time where I can be taught about Jesus by Jesus Himself. When I get up to preach to the kids I don't want to just talk about the Jesus of history, or the Jesus of Billy Graham or Macarthur or Spurgeon....I want to talk about MY Jesus. The Jesus that I know personally. The Jesus that owns me. The Jesus that delights in me because of who His blood has made me to be. The Jesus that watches me sleep. The Jesus that rides my bike to church with me everyday. The real, living Jesus. To be honest I don't feel like I can talk about Jesus like that every day. But I want to.
In Psalm 90:14 Moses cries out that God would "satisfy us in the morning with His unfailing love." Since there is no greater expression of God's unfailing love than the person of Jesus Christ, another way of saying this could be, "God satisfy us with Yourself!" The idea of satisfaction is recieving something you want. something you are hungry for. If you are hungry for a steak, a pickle won't do the trick. I am not satisfied with Jesus, because I am not hungry for Him. So behind the prayer of Moses which I echo, is the prayer, "God, change my tastes. Help me not to settle for anything less than You! You are willing and able to satisfy me, if only I was hungry for You! Change my twisted desires. Complete Your promise to give me a new heart that craves only You! How I long for the day when there is no competition in my soul for the affections You deserve. I will never be truly satisfied unless I first hunger."

craving Jesus
jrf

νουθετέω (Colossians 3:16)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3:16-17)

As I was preparing for a Bible study on "How to respond to believers in sin" I was struck with something in these verses. Something that perhaps I knew but really hadn't understood clearly the implications of. In these verses, Paul is commanding, not suggesting, that the word of Christ (the Bible) permeates every aspect of the believers life in the Body of Christ. Some examples of this church life are then listed: teaching, admonishing, singing, hearts of thankfulness. Paul then sums it up by saying that "whatever you do" should be Christ centered.

What hit me is that in Paul's list of activities and attitudes that he assumes are a natural part of church life, admonishing is sandwiched right between teaching and singing. That seemed weird to me. I have been in the church my whole life. I have heard a lot of teaching. I have sung a lot of songs. But admonishing? Apart from the occasional pulpit pounding sermon, admonishing has not been a regular experience for me in the Body of Christ, either giving or receiving.
The word admonishment in Greek literally means "to counsel about avoidance or cessation of an improper course of conduct" (BDAG), in other words, confronting people in their sin and lovingly calling them to repent. I know that we most often see that kind of thing as the responsibility of the pastor to cover in his sermons (where, by the way he probably won't use names and confront any individuals directly) but if we really want to be faithful to Scripture we will realize that the command to admonish each other is binding on every believer. We must be confronting each other about our sin! Its not an option. Get your hands dirty at church. Some of us don't even know anybody well enough to know what they need admonishing about!
Perhaps that greatest realization that I had about this passage is that admonishing each other is and should be as natural a part of the Christian experience as teaching, preaching, and singing worship songs. In fact, in our Western church services where everything has to be compartmentalized and scheduled to the exact minute, we should have a "admonishment" time right between worship and the sermon. We tend to think that when confrontation of sin has to take place that it is a bad thing. Of course sin is bad. But that is why we need sanctification and it is clear from scripture that sanctification does not happen in a vacuum, it happens in the Body of Christ. What better place to be confronted about and confess and repent of our deepest, darkest, demons then in the midst of a community who has felt the same conviction of sin and tasted of the loving mercy of our Savior? What better way to love your brother or sister in Christ than to be willing to have a hard conversation about them and warn them of their wandering from God? God is calling you and me to be about confronting sin in the lives of His children. Let's be obedient to give and humble to receive admonishment.

Dear sin, you are hideous

I was struck while reading Perelandra (Book 2 in C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy) at the ugliness of sin and convicted by my lack of deep hatred for it. In the book the main character, Dr. Ransom, has been taken to a planet that is just being created. This new planet has an equivalent Adam and Eve and sin has not yet infected this new creation. Everything is new, pure, beautiful, peaceful, perfect, and full of life. Ransom spends a few days on this planet, basking in the beauty of God's unspoiled work, until evil is introduced. When Ransom stumbles across the first effects of this evil he is stunned by something that we would not think twice about here on sin-stained earth. But this decay in a world of pure life brought out the reality of the stark contrast between death and life. Here is how Lewis communicates it.

At first he (Dr. Ransom) thought it was a creature of more fantastic shape than he had yet seen on Perelandra. Its shape and was not only fantastic but hideous. Then he dropped on one knee to examine it. Finally he touched it, with reluctance. A moment later he drew back his hands like a man who had touched a snake.
It was a damaged animal. It was, or had been, one of the brightly coloured frogs. But some accident had happened to it. The whole back had been ripped open in a sort of V-shaped gash, the point of the V being a little behind the head. Something had torn a widening wound backward -- as we do in opening an envelope -- along the trunk and pulled it out so far behind the animal that the hoppers or hind legs had been almost torn off with it. They were so damaged that the frog could not leap. On earth it would have been merely a nasty sight, but up to this moment Ransom had as yet seen nothing dead or spoiled in Perelandra, and it was like a blow in the face. It was like the first spasm of well-remembered pain warning a man who had thought he was cured that his family have deceived him and he is dying after all. It was like the first lie from the mouth of a friend on whose truth one was willing to stake a thousand pounds. It was irrevocable. The milk-warm wind blowing over the golden sea, the blues and silvers and greens of the floating garden, the sky itself -- all these had become, in one instant, merely the illuminated margin of a book whose text was the struggling little horror at his feet, and he himself, in that same instant, had passed into a state of emotion which he could neither control nor understand. He told himself that a creature of that kind probably had very little sensation. But it did not much mend matters. It was not merely pity for pain that had suddenly changed the rhythm of his heart-beats. The thing was an intolerable obscenity which afficted him with shame. It would have been better, or so he thought at that moment, for the whole universe never to have existed than for this one thing to have happened. (108-109)


I want to have this kind of repulsion to sin and its effects. I want to see the ugliness of Satan as exposed in the piercing and truthful rays of God's glory. I want to curse the father of lies and be sickened at the horribleness of sin every time I drive by roadkill or am selfish or watch a dear friend die of cancer or see a people group systematically oppressed. I want to praise God that even His sin perverted-creation can still have a shadow of beauty that goes beyond any synthetic imitation we could make. I want to see and feel sin and its effects from God's perspective, not my own desensitized, complacent position. And I can because Christ, through His being twisted, tortured, torn and terminated has faced sin and it's rotten Father and defeated them for and throughout eternity.

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Ro 5:12-19)

But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
(Heb 9:26)

by His grace
for His glory
jrf

"Suffer hardship...like a good soldier of Jesus Christ"

This week has been hard. Not hard like persecution. Not hard like starvation. Hard like American-spoiled hard. I admit that my "hard" is most of the world's fantasy. But for me this week was hard. Ministry emergencies, deadlines, interruptions of my routine, spiritual warfare, lack of sleep, emotional gymnastics, the sin of other's and my own sin all collided to make a trying week. More discouraging is the fact that these trials took me by surprise and I found I was ill prepared to face them, resulting in my retreat into escapism in some cases.
So when I was in my weekly discipleship meeting this morning with a student who has faced much of these same trials with me and we were going through II Timothy 2:1-7 I received a much needed kick in the pants from God's Word through Paul to Timothy.
As you may know Paul exhorts Timothy to "Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." II Tim 2:3. He then goes on to illustrate this by saying that, "No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. 5 Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules." (:4-5). As we began to talk about these verses I started to really think about what it means to endure hardship as a soldier does. The application that stuck out to me in a renewed way was that a soldier expects to see hardship. A soldier is not surprised when people start shooting at him. In fact, a soldier may even be disappointed if they come to the end of their career and have never been tested in the fires of combat. A soldier does not spend their life trying to avoid conflict, continually retreating to safety. A soldier is not consumed with finding new avenues of comfort and safety, but is consumed with engaging and defeating the enemy.
As I held up my life to those standards, I found myself lacking. In many ways my life (sometimes unintentionally, often intentionally) has been full of spiritual draft-dodging. I have tried every trick in the book to avoid facing the horrors of spiritual war and when the war finally comes to me, I am not prepared.
No longer can my life be about avoiding trials. Just as the soldier is consumed 24/7 with the mission so must I. My father is in a war zone right now and I guarantee you he does not know what Britney Spears did yesterday, or what movies are coming out this weekend. He might not even know who won the Superbowl. That's a good thing. Those things have nothing to do with his mission right now. So must I, and anyone who wants to be a good soldier of Christ, be so consumed with the painfully joyful mission of pressing on in our faith that "civilian" things are not allowed to choke out our light and let our guard down. Furthermore, our everyday energy must go towards preparing for trials, that will come and should be expected, and face them head on with the strength of the Lord, our Commander, Weapon, Prize, Medic, and Victor.

Prayer in the Life of Elijah (part 8)

Persevering Prayer
One more aspect of Elijah’s prayer life from which we can draw application to our own, is his example of persevering or persistent prayer. This is perhaps most clearly seen in Elijah’s prayer for rain to return after the 3 ½ year drought. In I Kings 18:41-46 we see that Elijah’s request for rain to return was not immediately granted. Yet Elijah persistently prayed with his face buried in between his knees until God answered his prayer. Again we see the patient perseverance of Elijah’s prayer in his prayer for the widow’s dead son(I Kings 17). Three times this man of God prays to God for a resurrection. In the mystery of God, some of Elijah’s prayers were answered immediately and others were answered only after patient and persistent prayer.
Jesus commanded the same such persistent prayer of His followers. We are to be like the persistent widow of Jesus’ parable (Luke 18:1-8). Let us not give up if our prayers are not answered immediately and emphatically. God’s ways are not our ways and He answers prayer in accordance with His plan and timetable.

by His grace,
for His glory,
jrf

prayer in the Life of Elijah (Part 7)

Honest prayer
Although Elijah displayed many acts of great faith, he was still just a man and experienced times of great discouragement and weakness. Perhaps the clearest example of this is when he fled to Mount Horeb to escape the persecution of Jezebel. He came to sit under a broom tree and prayed that he would die.
Although the weakness and lack of faith displayed by Elijah is not something that should be emulated, it is still important to notice the level of intimacy that Elijah had with God even during this season of his life. He honestly and humbly confesses to the Lord that he is tired and unworthy for the task to which he has been called (I Kings 19:4). He did not try to hide from the Lord but prayed to Him even in his darkest hour.
Often in our prayer lives it is the times when we are the most discouraged and overwhelmed with the pressures of life that we neglect to seek God. When problems arise or tragedy strikes, it is easy to become consumed with fixing things ourselves or sinking into depression. We can believe the lie that we are too busy to pray because we need to take action. Or we can be deceived into believing that our prayers will not be effective until we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get our act together. This is not what is seen from the experience of Elijah. At his lowest point, he confessed his exhausted, helpless state and left it in God’s hands. God was pleased to show His faithfulness to His weary and doubting servant and sustained Elijah. Let us be quick to honestly confess our weaknesses and failures to our God and trust in His sustenance.

by His grace,
for His glory
jrf

Prayer in the Life of Elijah (Part 6)

Earnest Prayer
James 5:17 states that Elijah prayed “earnestly”. In the Greek this phrase is literally translated, “he prayed with prayer.” This emphatic construction illustrates that Elijah did not treat prayer lightly. Everything he had was employed in prayer. This characteristic of Elijah’s prayer certainly comes through in the Old Testament account as well. When he prayed to God to raise the widow of Zarephath’s son from the dead, it doesn’t say that he just passively prayed. He cried out to the Lord. Then he stretched himself out on the dead boy. Again he cried out to the Lord with words of fervent passion to raise this boy from the dead. He repeated this three times. Elijah was a man of earnest prayer.
Too often the understanding of prayer in the church today is that it is a cold, rigid, passive ritual. It is difficult for fervent prayer to be cultivated with this mindset. This is not the kind of prayer exemplified by Elijah. Let us be challenged by his example. Let us engage all of our emotions, our intellect, and even our bodies when we enter into prayer. Let our prayers be characterized by urgent earnestness.

Prayer in the life of Elijah (part 5)

Specific Prayer
Whenever Elijah approached God in prayer as recorded in Scripture, he did not use vague generalities. He was specific in his petitions. James 5:17 tells us exactly what Elijah prayed for prior to confronting Ahab: a drought. When Elijah stood before the king and declared that there would be no rain for three years, he did so with the confidence that his fervent, specific prayer had been answered by God. We again see specific requests in the accounts of the resurrection of the son of the widow at Zarephath (17:20) and the showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (18:36-37).
Elijah’s prayers were marked with specificity. In faith he lifted up his particular requests to God and God answered them specifically. Although we may not always receive the answer that we desire, it is important that we also pray with specificity. Perhaps one reason why so many people doubt the power of prayer is because they have never prayed in such a specific way, making it impossible to see whether God has specifically answered their prayers, whether that answer be yes or no.

Prayer in the life of Elijah (part 3)

Righteous Prayer
The latter part of James 5:16 states, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James then gives an example of such a prayer. The example he gives is the prayer of Elijah to stop the rain. The righteousness of Elijah is seen specifically in the motive behind his request of God for a famine. The book of I Kings tells us Israel had abandoned the one true God and become infatuated with Baal worship. Elijah detested this false worship and wanted to see the pure worship of the true God restored so much that he was willing to pray for a drought and resulting famine to strike his country. Elijah most certainly would have known how devastating this request would be if answered by God. He most certainly would have known that a drought of this magnitude and duration would cause the death of many of his fellow countrymen. Yet his passion for God’s glory and his hatred of sin caused him to see that something drastic was needed to bring his nation back to the pure worship of Yahweh. Elijah almost certainly knew the message it would send to those who worshiped Baal if the rains were stopped. Baal was worshiped as the storm-god, the one who was in charge of the rain. Elijah prayed specifically that Baal would be exposed as a fraud. When he prayed he went for the jugular. Elijah prayed that God would show His power and glory in a dynamic and drastic way.
The Lord heard and answered Elijah’s prayer because he was righteous. This righteousness was shown through Elijah’s hatred of sin and obedience to God. The Scriptures are in agreement that it is the prayers of the righteous that God hears and answers (Prov 15:29; I Pet 3:12). Let us not forget the requirement of a righteous life and heart for effective prayer!

by His grace, for His glory
jrf

Prayer in the Life of Elijah (part 2)

Bold Faith
When Elijah prayed, he prayed with bold faith. In his first known prayer he asked the Lord to alter the normal course of nature in stopping the rain for years. He did not just pray for a momentary miracle but one that would be sustained for a period of 3 years and 6 months (Luke 4:25)!
In Elijah’s next recorded prayer we again see the bold faith of this prophet. He prays for the resurrection of a dead boy. It must be understood that although Abraham believed that God could raise the dead (Heb 11:19) there is no record in Scripture that anyone ever was resurrected prior to this event. The lack of precedence did not deter Elijah’s faith in God nor did it prevent him from requesting great things from God.
In one of the great dramatic events of the Old Testament, the showdown with the prophets of Baal, Elijah displayed perhaps his greatest example of bold faith. Here on Mount Carmel, in front of his nation, Elijah put his life on the line to show that Yahweh was the only true God. His very life depended on God answering with an emphatic “Yes!” to Elijah’s prayer that God display His glory and power right then and there on that mountain. Elijah knew that if there was no answer, he would be killed. Yet his faith in God was so strong that he had no fear.
Although we today do not have the direct special personal revelation that Elijah enjoyed, we have the written Word of God which instructs us that we “have boldness and confident access” to God through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph 3:12). Hebrews 4:16 also commands us to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Because of Jesus Christ we can and should have the same bold faith that Elijah displayed. We serve the same God.

by His grace,
for His glory
jrf

Prayer in the Life of Elijah (part 1)

Who Elijah Was:
Not much is known about the personal background of Elijah. What we know comes primarily from I Kings 17 and James 5:17. James says that Elijah was a man “just like us”. I Kings states that he was a Tishbite from Gilead. Gilead was known for being a cultural and economic backwater. Elijah wasn’t from royal blood, most likely had a minimal education and as far as is recorded was not a man of great wealth. There was no natural, social, or economic feature or ability that set Elijah apart from the common man. Everything that Elijah had available to him is available to us as believers. James keeps his readers from putting Elijah up on a pedestal. No one can point to Elijah and say, “well of course he prayed like that! He was Elijah!” No, Elijah was no superman. He was just like us. Therefore we can learn to pray powerful and effectively just like him. Although the circumstances and answers may be different, our prayers are to the same God and our answers come from the same God.

praying that we grow in prayer,
jrf

Repent! (part 1)

A reoccuring theme in my life over the past month or so has been repentance. I have taught on it, read about it in books, encountered it in my devotionals, and been confronted with the need for it in my own life. While I do not claim to be an expert on the subject either intellectually or experientially, I would like to post some thoughts and studies which may serve no greater purpose than helping me to synthesize my understanding of repentance but I pray that they may also be of some help and encouragement to you as well.

What is Repentance?
Old Testament
There are two primary words used for repentance in the Old Testament. The First word, naham, literally means “to pant” or “to sigh”. This word is concerned with expressing emotion. It is largely used to describe God’s response to man’s sin. In this usage, the word can accompany either God’s righteous judgment or His gracious mercy (Gen 6:6; Jonah 3:10). It is only when this word is applied to humans does it take on a sense of personal guilt and culpability. This difference is clearly delineated in the Scriptures (1 Sam 15:29; Job 42:6; Jer 8:6).
The second word used for repentance in the Old Testament is the term shubh. Translated literally it means “to turn” or “to Return”. The word is the main term used by the prophets when imploring the people of Israel to turn from their wickedness. This repentance demands a radical transformation of lifestyle which includes both an abandonment of sin and pursuit of righteousness (Deut 4:30; Neh 1:9; Ps 7:12; Jer 3:14).

New Testament

epistrepho
This word means plainly “to turn about, round, or towards.” Although it has other uses, it often is used to signify a conversion experience or turning from sin. Many of the conversion experiences of the Gentiles recorded in Acts are described using this word. It implies both a turning from sin and a turning to God (Acts 9:35; 11:21; 26:20; 1 Thess 1:9). This word focuses more on the noticeable and measurable action of change that is involved in repentance and makes no mention of grief or self-punishment as a part of the process.
metanoia (matt 3:8, 11)
This verb literally means “to perceive or change afterwards.” It is made up of the words meta (which means “after”)and noew (which means to “perceive” and implies change). It suggests a change of mind and purpose, as the result of knowledge. The related noun metanoia, is used to describe true repentance and indicates a change of life in which sin is forsaken.
John the Baptist, Jesus and the apostles all used the word metanoew when exhorting their listeners to repent (Matt 3:2; Mark 1:15; Acts 2:38). When used in the New Testament the word is always related with a spiritual transformation. It is coupled with the act of turning towards faith in Christ in Acts 2:38. Again in Acts 3:19 the word is used to exhort unbelievers to “return, that your sins may be wiped away”. Here we see repentance being referred to as the means by sins we are cleansed from our sins. In addition, this word is often associated and concerned with the intentions of the heart (Acts 8:22). Repentance in not entirely an inward experience however. It was used in conjunction with baptism by John the Baptist as an outward symbol of the inward change that repentance brings (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3; Acts 13:24; 19:4). Repentance is also presented as the only means of avoiding the penalties of sin (Luke 13:3). Furthermore, true repentance is evidenced in a person by the “fruit” that can be seen in their life (Matthew 3:8). Interestingly, This verb is used in the book of Revelation a total of twelve times. Eight of those uses are found in the letters to the seven churches of Asia.
metamelomai (matt. 4:17)
This verb is translated as “to regret or to repent.” It is generally understood that this verb connotes a more emotional defined response to sin. It focuses more on the remorse over sin and as opposed to the turning from sin. The word is also used to express regret, as is the case with Judas Iscariot (Matt 27:3).

Promises to the repentant
When used in the context of personal or corporate turning from sin, Scripture tells us that God has promised to respond with compassion and not only pardon us from the guilt and punishment of our wickedness, but give us life (II Chr 7:14; Is 55:7; Eze 18:21). It is clear from such passages as Psalm 51:17 and Joel 2:12-14 that God is primarily concerned with the individuals heart and will not respond to mere lip service.

In part 2 we will explore how repentance, although demanded of humanity, is possible only by the empowering grace of God.

by His grace
for His glory
jrf

The wise man didn't build his house on the rock

Well although many profound, intense, and important things have been happening in my little square cubit of the world, I have been grasping to process and communicate anything profound and worth you taking the time to read. Hence the lack of substantial or thought provoking posts over the past few weeks. Not that I generally ever think of myself as thought provoking or profound. Unfortunately I do not feel like this juicy brainfart is going to go away very soon so instead of waiting it out I'm going to try to throw all you ravenous readers a bone to chew on, all two of you. This is something that God has really been convicting me and showing me the importance of in my own life as well as becoming the main message of my ministry to the youth. Come to think of it, as simple and basic as this teaching is and although however convoluted and corse my communication of it is, it remains deeply profound and essential. The issue I am wrestling with is that of obedience. One would think that a seminary student and youth pastor who is immersed in theology and Biblical exegesis on a daily basis would have moved beyond struggling with not only being obedient but understanding the essence of obedience and seeing its foundational importance. One would be wrong in thinking so. It is actually so much easier to decieve myself into believing that I am being obedient by just merely knowing things about God and being able to exposit all over your face. Even though the scripture is replete with warnings that belief and knowledge without obedience is really no belief at all, or at least not belief in the Living and True God. One of the most helpful passages that has reaffirmed this in my heart is the Luke 6:46-49. I had grown up hearing this parable, singing songs about it and is one of the last passages I would have expected to find a renewed conviction to live a life of obeidience. This was one of those children's church stories, not a paradigm shattering point of no return. Then I understood what it was actually saying.


46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
47 “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:
48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
49 “But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the 1torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Since first hearing this story and hearing the song "the wise man built his house upon the rock..." I always pictured two distinct houses. One was a mighty house, perched on a yosemitesque granite mountain. This is the wise man's house. The fool however was swaying in his hammock in his straw hut, beachside on some pacific island unaware of the tsunami marching across the sea to obliterate him. The wise man will weather the storm cause he is not on the sand but on the mighty rock, right? Wrong. That interpretation given to us by the sunday school song is not only wrong, but deadly. Let's look back at what Jesus actually says. There are three parts the the wise man's house. The house, the rock, and the foundation. It is not the rock which is the emphasis of the story. It is the foundation. The picture is of two houses side by side. The rock is beneath both of them. Only the wise man however has dug through the sand and built a foundation on that rock. It is the foundation that makes him survive the storm not the rock. It is the lack of a foundation that proves deadly to the fool, not the sand. So, what is this foundation. In the parable Christ states that the rock is Himself and His words, ie. the Word of God. But it is the foundation that makes a man wise. In the parable the foundation is the person who not only hears and knows the Word of God but acts on them. Obedience to the Word of God is what gives an individual a foundation that will whether any storm. This takes repentance, perserverance, and self-death, all of which are gifts of God. It is so simple yet so profound. A Christian who does not display a life of continually seeking to be obedient to God does not have a foundation. Their house will not stand in the storms of this life nor will they stand in the raging storm of God's final judgement. The only true response to the Word of Christ is obedience. To "know" the Word of God yet not obey them is a deadly combination.
Join me in seeking to not only coming to Christ and hear His words, but in desperatly acting on those words, not in our strength but the strength that He overwhelmingly provides for us.

Obedience is not just the best way to show we believe, it is the only way.

by His grace,
for His glory,
jrf

Marriage matters

In our world today, views and definitions of marriage abound. The glut of so-called “marital” forms displayed across the globe reflect not only the West’s obsession with Postmodernism but humankind’s natural (or rather unnatural) tendency to define their own realities and obligations based on their immediate needs, desires, and good old fashion foolishness. From polygyny, polyandry, and polyamory to swingers, open and alternative marriages (insert your own definition here), the true meaning and purpose of marriage has been raped by the machine of human depravity. Perhaps this “definition” of marriage from an alternative marriage chat room is a good motto for the world’s understanding of marriage: “anybody of any anything who is married in any way to any other anything.”
Sadly however, the distortion of the institution of marriage is not a distinctive of only the openly pagan contingent of society. Many religious faiths, even those that would broadly qualify as “christian,” hold damaging, erroneous, and necessarily unbiblical stances concerning marriage. These stances stem from many causes but often are the result of incorrectly interpreting and applying the Biblical texts. One of the more notorious flawed views of marriage is that it is merely a device instituted by God to facilitate procreation. This view is held by many Catholics as well as some in the evangelical church.
The Biblical definition of marriage stands in sharp, countercultural defiance of today’s public understanding. God’s definition of marriage is given to us straight from the mouth of Christ, where He recounts God’s establishment of the marriage institution during the creation week: “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." (Matt 19:4-7) Again, the purpose for marriage is found in the creation account. The only thing not “good” in all of God’s perfect creation was the loneliness of Adam. Thus God created Eve as his companion (Gen 2:18-25). Yes they were to have children, but they also were to share in the task of stewarding God’s creation. And they were to do it as an intimate entity. So intimate in fact that they did everything naked. Everything. Intimate companionship between a human male and human female to the glory of God is at the core of what marriage is. Marriage is about fulfilling and having fulfilled each others God-given desires for intimate companionship which translates into God glorifying fruit. This intimate companionship can only be sustained and blessed through a marriage covenant. Again our understanding of a covenant comes from God Himself. The first mention of a covenant relationship is found in the Flood narrative. From there, God continues to make covenants with people of His choosing and these covenants form the foundation and framework of all that occurs in the rest of scripture as well as our very own present faith in Christ. A covenant in the Biblical sense is a binding agreement, with extreme consequence for violating it. It is this agreement into which married couples enter into when they exchange their vows.
Although this understanding of marriage may seem archaic or even foreign to some, it is nevertheless the institution God has established to fulfill the human need for intimate companionship. Since God is the author of marriage, it is beautiful, full of hope, and a living metaphor for His intimate, loving relationship with His Bride (Eph 5:22-33). To abandon Biblical marriage is to abandon beauty and hope both for individuals and society at large. Every other institution that God put into place has at its center the family as its essential basic unit. This ancient standard is anything but outdated. It is one of the oldest expressions of God’s grace and grace can never be outdated.

by God's grace,
for God's glory,
jrf

100% Juice

Last Saturday the church community rallied together to paint the Nehemiah House. The paint and equiment was paid for by NASCAR Angels, a reality TV show in the vein of Extreme Home Makeover. The whole event was filmed and ended with the Yetters (our assistant pastor and wife and kids) recieving their "madeover" car. Some one from our church had randomly sent in an application unbenounced to the Yetters. The show will air sometime this fall on ABC I believe. Details to come.
Anyways, throughout the week the film crew interviewed people who were part of the Nehemiah House in some way or another. Literally hundereds of hours of film was used. After I was interviewed myself I got to thinking about how when the show actually airs only twenty two minutes of actual footage will be shown. Out of those twenty two minutes probably at least a third will be focused on the in- shop work being done on the Yetter's car. Another substantial chunk will be dedicated to the painting of the Nehemiah House. Although the Gospel was shared many times in the multiple interviews that were done, the chances of a clear Gospel message being aired are slim. Keep it in your prayers.
As I further meditated on the experience, feeling a level of frustration with the editing process and realizing the power of whoever makes the editing choices, I began to see some parrallels in our society as well as in my own life. For the most part I believe that as a culture, we have lost the art of soaking in information and knowledge. We want short excerpts, soundbites, and songs that stay under the three minute radio limit. If a movie breaks the two hour mark we whine because we would vote for quick explosive action in favor of character and plot development any day. Our stamina for literature over a few hundred pages is weak. Even in our relationships we strive to be shallow. When I see my wife in the evenings I want the cliff notes of her day. Rarely can I sit still through a post-dinner chat over coffee with friends. I have taken the role of editor of my life and have somehow deemed in-depth relationships superfulous.
Yet even more tragic is that this trend has also reared its ugly melon in my fellowship with God through His word. All too often I approach Divine Revelation with carnal impatience. I want something practical now! I hesitate to ask questions to which I know the answer will not come immediatly or without effort. And then I wonder when the syptoms of a shallow relationship with my Lord are evidenced in my life.
Join with me in declaring war on superfisciality. Saturate yourself in life. Don't live for sensual stimulation, seek true, slow growth. Sink your roots into relationships. And through it all sink your roots into the Word of God. Let us not be weeds in the garden of God that sprout quickly on the surface but are gone tommorrow. Rather let us be sturdy trees, sentinel like and beautiful, drinking deeply from the boundless depths of God's living water, dripping with juicy, God-glorifying fruit.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:1-3


By His Grace,
For His Glory,
jrf

Conferences, homework, youth group, and journal

Sorry for the infrequent posts. Last week I was in Louisville, KY for the Together For the Gospel conference. Good stuff! For a rundown of the conference go here. Last night was my first youth group back. Taught on Ephesians 2:11-22 and titled my sermon "God's immigration policy" talking about what it takes to become a citizen of heaven. Perhaps I'll post more on that later. Now it's time to hit the books. a week and a half until this semester is over. In hindsight I dont think I will take 18.5 units again.

Once school gets out I will be posting more regularly and in depth. For now I leave you with a recent entry from my quasi-daily journal.

I’m doing my long since due chapter titles on the Psalms and am struck by how many are prayer for protection against the persecution of the wicked. Then I realize that there is no one who wants to kill me, I am on the run from no one, no one is angry with me. And that’s a problem because there are plenty of people angry at God. Lord help me to regain my boldness, help me to break out of this addiction of comfort and complacency. I want to be dangerous. I want your enemies. I want your protection. Help me to need it.

by His grace, for His glory

jrf