stand in the rain

out of the movies and into the gallery

2012-01-28T12:01:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
Leviticus 1

Leviticus is famous as the book where people stopped reading the Bible! Armed, at the start of a new year, with their resolutions and their “Bible in a Year” bookmarks, they zoom right through Genesis:

Creation!
Eden!
Serpent, sin, and banishment;
Cain and Abel;
Noah’s ark;
The tower of Babel;
Abraham and Sarah and the Son of Promise;
Sodom and Gomorrah;
Jacob Rachel and Rachel and a stairway to the stars;
Joseph and his brothers.

They fly through Exodus:

Mortar, bricks, and taskmasters;
Baby Moses in the bulrushes;
The backside of the desert;
The burning bush and the of Name God;
Aaron’s rod and the magicians of Egypt;
The plagues;
The Passover;
The parting of the Red Sea;
Wilderness and manna;
Sinai and the Ten Commandments;
The golden calf;
The Tabernacle.

Then, with excitement and anticipation they turn the page, only to be met by--a burnt offering?

Now the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock--of the herd and of the flock. 'If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire. (Leviticus 1:1-7)

Well, there were some slow sections in Exodus, too. So they keep on going. They make it all the way through the grain offering in chapter two, then the peace offering in chapter 3.

But by chapter 5 they start to peek ahead to see if anything ever happens in Leviticus. Skimming the pages, they come across some laws about leprosy, some cleansing rituals, and some dietary regulations. Then there’s something about feasts and the garments of the priests…

It can make the reader wonder whether the Holy Spirit, who got off to such an intriguing start in Genesis and Exodus, forgot how to tell the Story. And right there in the midst of Leviticus their Bible in a Year bookmarks get stuck, never to move again.

But do not fret, dear reader. Whenever the well-intentioned believer has gotten lost in Leviticus, it’s because he’s lost sight of Jesus.

He lost sight of Jesus because the straightforward narrative (plot and character) presentation of Genesis and Exodus shifts abruptly to the symbolic abstractions of Leviticus.

Whereas Genesis and Exodus are stories—in fact, movies—the reader, as he turns the page to Leviticus, enters a gallery of perpetually modern art.

The Symbolist paintings are here, and the Abstract Expressionists are there, the sculpture is over there, the Impressionists are down there, and further down the hall are the Cubists.

The pictures aren’t physically moving, like they are in Genesis and Exodus, but once the Bible student aesthetically enters into this gallery and stops expecting theater, then these portraits of Jesus can be as dramatic and as emotionally moving as any to be found in scripture.

So we invite you inside Leviticus, where the very first thing you will notice, of course, is a highly stylized abstraction of a cross.

This effect is achieved in part by the metaphorical usage of fire (1). Placed beneath the grates on the altar of sacrifice, the flames are representative of God, who is, both literally and allegorically, a consuming fire…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) see Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29; and Leviticus 1:7 (above)

mark this

2012-01-27T11:30:00.003-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Timothy 4

The last chapter of a person’s life can be counted on to provide perspective and reduce the whole to its essence. That’s why you’ll need your marker…

If your Bible has one of those groovy old-fashioned ribbon markers that are sewn right into the binding, and if you’re not marking anything in particular with it, then may I suggest that you park your marker right here in the last chapter of 2 Timothy.

Paul’s death is near and he senses it. Nearing the end of the road, he can now look back and see the whole parade. As he does, he distills it all into one immortal line:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)

The presence of Christ is almost palpable here as he recalls that when he stood alone, he was not alone:
At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.
But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. (2 Timothy 4:16-17)

Then, with a sweet flourish, as if he could gather all his years and tears in one cup, he pours them all out just to watch them go up in steam:
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. (2 Timothy 4:6)

There is no more beautiful illustration in scripture than Paul’s “drink offering” as it ascends to Jesus. It was the perfect picture of the life he’d poured out in Jesus’ honor. It hearkens back to the offerings of Exodus and Leviticus, where wine was poured over the sacrifice on a brazen altar with fire underneath it. The wine would just evaporate and disappear, and all that was left was the Lamb.

Paul wanted to leave no trace of himself. His heart’s desire was that his life, when boiled down, was about nothing but Jesus. It was a gesture so lovely and so grand that it had to be his finale.

***

“2 Timothy 4.” Mark it in your mind if you don’t have a ribbon, because you’ll need to find your way back to this spot. You’ll turn here all the time, and when you do you’ll find just what you need.

When you need some perspective on the whole parade of life, you’ll find it here.

When you need someone to stand up for you, you’ll find your Defender here.

When you’re weary and ready to quit, you’ll find a fellow faith fighter here.

And when your life disappears like smoke, you’ll find--standing there in your place, like he did at the cross—the one for whom your life stood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can see clearly now

2012-01-26T14:15:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Timothy 3

mark this:
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

and this:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Both Peter’s and Paul’s final thoughts—found in 2 Peter and 2 Timothy—emphasize the Word of God and the gospel.

When it came down to their final thoughts, these two great apostles did not emphasize prayer or good works or fellowship or worship. Their parting advice was to hold tenaciously to the Word of God (from whence all of those things will issue.)

I want to re-echo their sentiments today. Moreover, I want us to develop a biblical worldview—a habit of mind that places the Bible not only at center stage, but at the center of a far wider stage…

Because ultimately the Bible will not be thought of in the narrow way it is thought of now—as a religious book. The Bible will, ever more and more so, come to be recognized as the lens through which all reality is to be comprehended, if it is to be comprehended at all.

By all reality I mean all of it. What we normally think of as secular—let’s say the stock market and the Super Bowl--can not be seen for what they are until they enter through the aperture of the Word of God.

That may sound crazy, but only because we have been trained to think that the stock market and the Super Bowl somehow occupy a sphere that is outside of scripture’s purview.

They are not. The Bible is as infinite as its author, as all-encompassing as He who IS; who is the all in all (1); who is the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End who has no beginning and no end.

***

The Bible teaches us that Jesus holds everything together:
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:17/NIV, NASB, ESV)

The New King James Version says it in a way that permeates even deeper:
He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (Colossians 1:17)

Without him factored in, no equation is relevant—on any topic whatsoever.

I have a great deal of respect for the intelligence of my readers. I don’t dumb down scripture and people who want it dumbed down soon stop reading Stand in the Rain. What I’m left with are some serious heads. So I want you to take your serious head and wrap it around a quote from Graeme Goldsworthy, an Aussie Bible commentator and a hero of mine. I will only help you with vocabulary: hermeneutical (I looked it up!) has to do with interpretation, as I’ve inserted. For all the rest you are on your own, so read slowly and gather as much as you can from what I consider the most all-encompassing paragraph of commentary that I have ever encountered:

The hermeneutical (interpretive) question about the whole Bible correlates with the question, ‘What do you think of Christ?’ … The hermeneutical (interpretive) center of the Bible is therefore Jesus in his being and in his saving acts – the Jesus of the gospel. … We can say that, while not all Scripture is the gospel, all Scripture is related to the gospel that is its centre. … The Bible makes a very radical idea inescapable: not only is the gospel the interpretive norm for the whole Bible, but there is an important sense in which Jesus Christ is the mediator of the meaning of everything that exists. In other words, the gospel is the hermeneutical (interpretive) norm for the whole of reality. --Graeme Goldsworthy from "Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics"

I’m not smart enough to know what Jesus thinks of the stock market, or the Super Bowl, or Facebook, or the presidential primaries, or casinos, or the Constitution, or Mozart, or Mickey Mantle, or Mickey Mouse, or Dickens, or Dostoevsky.

But I am smart enough to know that until we relate all of the above to him, we have untethered them from any meaning at all.

We as Christians may or may not be right on this issue or on that issue, but we are smart enough to know that until we filter everything through the Word of God, our ignorance on those issues is guaranteed.

We must—deliberately and proactively--cultivate a habit of mind that Jesus himself cultivated:
"I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge." (John 15:30)

Jesus enforced, for himself, a biblical worldview—an outlook that consults the Word of God on absolutely everything.

On our own, we see through a glass darkly (2). But scripture doesn’t. So let’s emulate Jesus' way of looking at things. We will never see what he sees until we look through the same lens.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) 1 Corinthians 15:28; (2) 1 Corinthians 13:12

"Remember Jesus Christ."

2012-01-25T10:17:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Timothy 2

mark this:
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained. (2 Timothy 2:8-9)

2 Timothy is the last will and testament of Paul, with notes of sadness and triumph not found in other epistles. The dark cloud of apostasy is gathering in the background as Paul writes from a prison in Rome, where he is soon to be beheaded.

Paul is normally a man of guarded heart, but the dwindling days and his memories of Timothy combine to bring his guard down.

In a sort of spiritual relay race, he passes the torch to Timothy and challenges him to keep the flame burning:
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. (2 Timothy 1:6)

He reminds Timothy that defeat is not the norm for Christian living:
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (1:7)

He exhorts him to unleash the truth.
So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. (2 Timothy 1:8)

Then he wraps everything he cherishes into a couple verses and leaves it all to Timothy:
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained. (2 Timothy 2:8-9)

***

Currency is just an agreement that one piece of paper is more valuable than another.
I don’t have a lot of money, and from what I gather, neither do most of you. Paul had none. But what he left Timothy was a Savior whom death cannot detain, and a Word that cannot be confined.

The Bible is a long letter, written to God’s children. I and billions like me have agreed that the paper it’s written on is literally more valuable to us than all of Warren Buffet’s billions of dollar bills and all his stock certificates. (I’ll gladly take a few billion off your hands, Warren--if you happen to be reading--but I’m not trading.) What Warren’s got is chicken feed next to what I’ve been given and what I can give.

If you leave to someone what God left to Paul and Paul left to you, then you will have bequeathed “currency” incalculable.

Take a check. Write Remember Jesus Christ. Sign it. Hand it to someone or toss it in the air and let the wind deliver it. Make someone very, very rich.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"But who do you say that I am?"

2012-01-24T10:49:00.003-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Timothy 1

Yesterday, we looked at “doctrine” in general. Today we conclude with the specifics of sound biblical doctrine.

***

Paul thought sound doctrine was of ultimate importance.

He warns Timothy, repeatedly, that he must insist upon true doctrine. In 1 and 2 Timothy, the word “doctrine” appears 11 times. (1)

He warns Titus just as emphatically. In the three short chapters of the letter to Titus, “doctrine” shows up four times.

Jesus warned the disciples to beware “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” When they didn’t understand his figure of speech, he told them, plainly, that he was talking about doctrine:
Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:12)

In Matthew 13:33, in a one-sentence parable (which some commentators believe to be the key verse of Matthew, which is the key book of the Bible) Jesus illustrated how false doctrine would work its way into his kingdom:
Another parable He spoke to them: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened." (Matthew 13:33)

(Leaven in the Bible is a principle of evil. Unleavened bread can be seen as the Word of God, which is food for the child of God. When the woman in Matthew 13 mixed in leaven--unsound doctrine--then it makes the Bible palatable to the natural man. The true Word of God--unleavened bread--is unpalatable to the natural man.)

So what is sound doctrine?
Because Jesus is the issue (he’s the question and the answer) in the universe, crucial doctrine has to do, of course, with him:

"But who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:15)

There is interpretive leeway in many biblical matters, but doctrine concerning the person (who he is) and work (what he has done) of Jesus Christ cannot be trifled with or compromised or watered down. Most good churches, somewhere on their websites, will list a statement of their doctrine. Boiled down to their essence, they look like this:

The person of Jesus Christ:
He is God, the eternal Son of the eternal Father. He divested Himself of heaven's glory, to become like one of us--born of woman, born under the law--so that he could take my place on a cross that I had earned. Seed of the woman, Son of Man, Son of Abraham, Son of Promise, Son of David, Son of a virgin named Mary, he was baptized in identification with us as we are baptized in identification with Him. Coming up out of the water, driven by the Spirit, he withstood temptation by wielding the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, against the devil in the wilderness. In the power of the Holy Spirit he lived a sinless life.

The work of Jesus Christ:
He personified the grace and truth of God. He performed miracles, the Creator with the means to direct his creation to his chosen ends. He set his face like flint for Jerusalem, where he died at the hands of secular government and organized religion for the sins of the world, then rose from the dead in accordance with--and fulfillment of--scripture. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Of the increase of his kingdom and peace there will be no end.

That’s who He is, and upon this Rock we make our stand. We give no ground. We take no prisoners.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) word count taken from the New King James Version

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

2012-01-23T10:04:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
Titus 3

mark this: 1 Timothy 4:16
Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

and this: Titus 2:1
You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.

Over time, words take on certain tinges and tints and overtones. “Doctrine,” for example, is considered to be a word tinged with narrowness, exclusivity, and fundamentalism.

To which I say, “Hallelujah! There’s still a word which means what it’s meant to mean!”

Doctrine is exclusive! It excludes error from creeping into our minds, just like walls keep the cold out of the house. Which is a good thing, unless you’ve got something against keeping warm.

Correct doctrine means that what you are taking from the Word of God are the things God meant when he said them.

False doctrine means that you are taking from the Word of God something other than what God meant when he said it!

Just because someone is quoting the Bible doesn’t mean he has your best interests at heart. The devil quoted Genesis 2:17 (to Eve) and Psalm 91 (to Jesus) in an attempt to topple the moral order of the universe.

Paul said, in Acts 2:42, that the early church devoted themselves to just a few things:
1. the apostles’ doctrine
2. fellowship
3. the breaking of bread
4. prayer

Throughout his letters (sometimes in terms that make us wince) Paul insists upon none other than the apostles’ doctrine:
I wish the people who are bothering you (with doctrinal error) would go the whole way and castrate themselves! (Galatians 5:12)

He warns Timothy, repeatedly, that he must insist upon true doctrine. In 1 and 2 Timothy, the word “doctrine” appears 11 times. (1)

He warns Titus just as emphatically. In the three short chapters of the letter to Titus, “doctrine” shows up four times.

Jesus warned the disciples to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” When they didn’t understand his figure of speech, he told them, plainly, that he was talking about doctrine:
Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:6, 12)

In Matthew 13:33, in a one-sentence parable (which some commentators believe to be the key verse of Matthew, which is the key book of the Bible!) Jesus illustrated how false doctrine would work its way into his kingdom:
Another parable He spoke to them: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened." (Matthew 13:33)

(Leaven in the Bible is a principle of evil. Unleavened bread can be seen as the Word of God, which is food for the child of God. When the woman in Matthew 13 mixed in leaven--unsound doctrine--then it makes the Bible palatable to the natural man. The true Word of God--unleavened bread--is unpalatable to the natural man.)

So what is sound doctrine?

We'll boil sound doctrine down to its essence tomorrow. See you then.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) word count taken from the New King James Version

out of this world

2012-01-22T16:28:00.005-05:00

The Word for today:
Titus 2

Today we behold one of the most beloved passages in scripture. It presents an exquisite picture of what we refer to as the “Rapture”--
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:11-13)

We hear a great deal about the Rapture. Stand in the Rain, about a year ago, devoted a 2-part article to the subject, which can be found here and here.

Some people make fun of the Rapture, and in the case of unbelievers, I can understand why. If you don’t know God, the Rapture is just too miraculous to even imagine. So most of the unbelieving world just snickers.

Some believers also find the Rapture unbelievable. (I know this because I used to be one of them.) They either can’t see it in scripture; or else, saved as they are, their Jesus is too little to pull off such an outrageous, outlandish, outstanding, out of this world (literally!) and outta sight (literally!) miracle.

First, let me say that salvation does not depend on your belief in miracles like the Rapture. Salvation depends on whether you believe that God died for your sins (just like scripture said he would) and rose again from the dead--just like scripture said he would:

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that 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. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

What I am trying to slyly infer is that if you believe that God became a man in order to die for your sins, and (to verify that the plan worked) rose from the dead, then what in tarnation could keep you from believing some of the less spectacular miracles--like a virgin giving birth, or the parting of the Red Sea, or the time when that virgin’s son (who’d been engendered by the Holy Spirit, no less) did Moses one better and walked right over the top of the water without bothering to part it!

***

My intention is not to tease you or belittle your faith. Remember, I’m that guy who was saved --as saved as I ever will be—for years and years before I would, before I could, before I did stop questioning some of the Bible’s more miraculous moments.

But, over time, Jesus—just as the Bible says (1) — grew in stature! He just kept growing and growing in my eyes until one day it was impossible for the virgin birth not to have happened! And of course he could feed 5000. That’s a piece o’ cake when you can make an infinite cosmos out o’ nothing! And when you don’t owe sin any wages (like the rest of us do) then of course you can tell death (in the case of Lazurus) to go take a hike. (2)

***

The Rapture is foreshadowed throughout scripture. Enoch was raptured way back in the Bible’s fifth chapter. Elijah was raptured. The Apostle Paul was caught up into heaven and came back to tell us he was forbidden to tell us about it!

The Apostle John was raptured into heaven and (lucky for us) was told to tell us everything he saw there. He called his report “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” and you’ll find it at the extreme other end of the Bible. So Enoch, Elijah, Paul, John, and (you thought I forgot) Jesus were all taken up—raptured.

The Rapture is simply the resurrection of the church. The Bible calls Jesus the "firstfruits" (3) and we, of the same seed, will follow in kind.

Through Jesus, God restored his image in us:
Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:49)

He gave us his righteousness:
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

He made us his sons:
To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)

Given all that, it is perfectly logical that we would emulate his resurrection as well.

If the desire of your heart is to be like Jesus, and to follow Jesus, then you will--right out of this world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) Luke 2:52; (2) see Romans 6:23, John 11; (3) 1 Corinthians 15:20

Have Bible. Will travel.

2012-01-21T09:49:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
Titus 1

mark this: Titus 1: 5, 10-11
The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished.
For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach.

note: The letter from Paul to Titus is another of the “Pastoral Epistles,” along with 1 and 2 Timothy.
The letters to Timothy emphasize sound teaching; the letter to Titus emphasizes God’s order for the conduct of the church.

***

Titus, like Nehemiah of old, was one of those people who could turn a situation around. When his name comes up in the New Testament, he is usually serving as Paul’s troubleshooter. When problems erupted in stormy congregations, Titus hit the road.

This wasn’t his first rodeo. He’d been sent to rowdy Corinth twice. Now he faces an equally challenging task on the island of Crete. Like a Wyatt Earp sent to clean up Dodge and Abilene, Titus was routinely dispatched to rough and tumble churches to restore order.

Crete was notorious for misbehavior. One of the island’s own poets described Cretans as always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons. (1:12)

Paul tells Titus to search for church leaders who are not arrogant or quick-tempered; not heavy drinkers, violent, or greedy for money (1:7). Reading between the lines, we gain some insight into the average Cretan. The implication is that a handful of Cretans with those qualifications were not going to be easy to find.

In some letters, such as Galatians, Paul fought against legalism. But the church on Crete, full of immature Christians, needed basic lessons in morality, and Paul spelled them out for Titus in a straightforward style.

So the book of Titus reads like a troubleshooter’s manual. Chapter 2 lists some of the diverse groups in the church: older men, older women, younger women, young men, and slaves. Each presented a set of problems that needed attention.

Titus was sent to a tough town full of tough people, but you get the sense that Titus was the toughest of them all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

unapproachable light

2012-01-20T12:39:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Timothy 6:3-21

mark this: 1Timothy 6:16
…who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.

Sometimes, I just get stopped in my tracks. I comment on this, then that, then the other; and all the while I’m pretty cocksure of myself. Then I come to a verse like this one:

He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light.

I can’t grasp the meaning of a line like that…which is exactly what it means!

We don’t know where God came from, because he has no point of origin. He just IS -- that’s His Name (1) -- and there never was a time when he was not.

For us, immortality means eternal life going forward. For God, who has no point of reference to time, immortality means been there, done that—in the opposite direction!

I used to ponder words like immortality until my head ached. The concept mocks our intelligence. I used to try to make God fit into my frame of mind. Sometimes he did, but oftentimes he did not.

Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) said that, “A God whom we could understand would be no God.”

R.C. Sproul (b. 1939) said,
“The finite can "grasp" the infinite, but the finite can never hold the infinite within its grasp. There is always more of God than we apprehend.”

John Dick (1764-1833) said,
“We believe that it our knowledge of God will be progressive, and that as our views expand, our blessedness will increase. But it will never reach a limit beyond which there is nothing to be discovered, and when ages after ages have passed away, He will still be the incomprehensible God.”

Isaiah (writing from 740-700 B.C.), quoting God (who always was and always will be), said:
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (55:8-9)

***

I used to be perplexed by infinity, and by other attributes of Jesus that are too profound for me (2). For the longest time, I thought that I would never get to know him. Then, one day, something clicked. A thought snapped into place, that if Jesus is too much for me to take it all in, that just proves I’m getting to know him.

He lives in unapproachable light, Paul tells us. Paul ought to know. He'd encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, and his eyes were never the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) see Exodus 3:14; John 8:58; (2) Psalm 131:1; Psalm 139:6

playing out of position

2012-01-19T10:04:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Timothy 5:1-6:2

In the further annals of how screwed up our churches are (he said, calling them as he sees them) I must direct our attention to this verse:

Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain," and, "The laborer is worthy of his wages." (1 Timothy 5:17-18)

The Bible decrees (and the early church complied) that if anybody in the church were to be paid, it would be the Bible teacher. We, of course, don’t do things that way. Most people know a professional (paid) pastor or two or ten in their town. But ask if they know a professional Bible teacher, and they will wait for the punch line.

I point this out only as an example of how far we’ve gotten from God’s blueprint and priorities. That blueprint – the most instructive verse in scripture for what church leadership should look like — is right here:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:11- 13)

***

An apostle is an explorer and strategist/visionary, expanding the geographical frontiers of the faith.

A prophet is an enforcer, proclaiming God’s Word while stressing obedience and reinforcing the frontiers of human volition (the will.)

An evangelist proclaims the Good News, bringing the moment of personal decision to its crisis. His frontier is the heart.

A teacher explains God’s Word so it can be understood. His frontier is the mind.

A pastor is God’s nurturer. His frontier is the human condition. He meets people where they are, just as they are, bearing God’s mercy and forgiveness.

About the funniest and saddest thing that you will see (because it confirms how far away we are from the way that things should be) are the signs in front of our churches. They, invariably, tell what time the Sunday service is. (All across town, services are at the same time. I’ve always wondered why.)

Half the time, near the top or the bottom, the name of the pastor is prominently displayed. As if it would make a difference to the people passing by whether it’s Pastor Mojo Jones or Pastor Dewey Decimal who is presiding.

Much better, if you’re going to be stupid about it, to be big-time stupid. So if ever I go by a church that lists the names of their apostle, their prophet, their evangelist, their pastor, and their teacher, I will know that, vain and inane as their sign is, at least they’re trying to be scriptural about it!

Most of our pastors would be great pastors, but we’ve made them administrators and speechmakers, which many of them aren’t particularly gifted to accomplish. So instead of being great at what they were meant to do—consolation, compassion, empathy, and understanding—we’re playing them out of position.

Asking pastors to be prophets and teachers and evangelists and administrators is like a track coach asking his distance runners to be shot-putters and high jumpers as well. That’s a formula for defeat, and that’s how out-of-kilter and out-of-sync our church structures must look to God. He designed church leadership to function according to giftedness, which means that what He asks us to do is what He equipped us to do best.

The church has been designed (if only we’d follow the plan) to be strong and smart and fast and agile. But most of the time we do well just stay out of our own way.

When the church decides to make pastors pastors and prophets prophets and teachers teachers; when the church (and the pastors themselves) stop making one ill-equipped brother to be all-of-the-above, then the world had better get out of our way.

But that would mean we’d have to do things God’s way. Wow, what an interesting concept.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The only way to get in the church is to know Somebody.

2012-01-18T11:24:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Timothy 4:6-16

1 Timothy and 2 Timothy and Titus – known as the “Pastoral Epistles” – are all about the church:

Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (3:14-15)

As we read the New Testament, we can be confused by the phrase “the church” until we understand that sometimes “the church” is used to describe

1. the visible “church,” which Jesus said would contain both “wheat and tares (weeds) ” -- believers and unbelievers mixed together:

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. (Matthew 13:24-25)

And sometimes “the church” is used to describe

2. the true church—which is 100% “wheat:”

You have come to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood. (from Hebrews 12:22-24)

The Visible Church -- Wheat and Weeds

People in the visible church are there for all kinds of different reasons:

Cultural “Christians” are there because people are innately religious. So, if the surrounding culture is considered “Christian,” the innately religious person finds his way into a building beneath a steeple topped by a cross. But that same person, were he in another culture, would just as surely find his way into a building beneath a minaret--because he's religious and that's where religious people go, don't ya know.

I get the feeling all the time that I'm in the midst of cultural Christians who have never encountered the unique Son of God, the Christ of the Bible. (Or maybe they have and I haven't--but whichever way it goes, we are not on the same page!)

A ritual “Christian” is just going through the motions, because he doesn't know any better. He doesn't know any better because he was never taught any better. His church did not teach him the saving gospel as proclaimed in scripture, so he is lost for lack of knowledge. Listen as Paul stresses the crucial significance of correct doctrine:
Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. (1 Timothy 4:16; cf. 1 Timothy 1:3)

This rote, ritual “Christian” represents the saddest case of all. He might have responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but no one ever clearly expressed it to him. He unwittingly let “the church”-- not the Word of God--speak for God.

A third group of tares is there for “personal” reasons that are all about other people. Joe Seek-her attends because dreamy Debbie the Christian chick invited him. John the insurance salesman knows that contacts are good for business. The couple who live down the street think their kids should get some religion.

The True Church—Whole Wheat

The true church, collectively known as the body of Christ (1), is found within the visible church--just as the believing remnant (“true Israel”) was within “national Israel,”

for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. (Romans 9:6)

Every person in the true church is there because he or she knows Somebody! Evangelists call it “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” It means you know a person—not a concept, or a statue, or a philosophy, or a theology, or a creed, or a code of conduct. And it means that He knows you.

That’s why two or three, on a bench in the park, gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and redeemed by His blood--fulfill the Scriptural definition of the true church. (Matthew 18:20)

And that’s why two or three thousand, gathered together in a lavish sanctuary, under a splendid steeple topped by a shimmering cross--may or may not fulfill the Scriptural definition of a true church. (Matthew 18:20).

If “church” to you means a steeple and people, a building and a meet-and-greet, then I would steal one of their Bibles and head straight for the park. I would sit there, alone, until I wasn’t alone anymore.

And I would never go back to church until I brought Someone with me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) see Ephesians 1:22-23

doctrines of demons: "Did God really say...?"

2012-01-17T11:51:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Timothy 3.14-4.5

mark this: 1 Timothy 4:1
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

Wouldn’t it be remarkable to see a replay of the Garden of Eden—especially the scene where the snake is standing on his feet, enticing Eve with the fruit of the tree…

Well, if you go to the window and look outside, there it is!

Eden is replayed every day. It’s been played out in your life and mine. (We succumbed / flunked / fell.)

It was played out in Jesus’ life. (He passed, slicing the devil’s seductive suggestions to pieces with the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God (1).

All those replays were personal, one-on-one encounters. But there is coming a day (I know it’s coming, because it’s already here) when the world, collectively, will face an onslaught of what the Bible calls the doctrines of demons:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. (1 Timothy 4:1)

Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. (1Jn 4:3)

The battle line runs between your fingers (if you are holding a Bible). The assault, as in Eden, will be on the veracity and trustworthiness of the Word of God. It will sound exactly like this:

Did God really say…? (Genesis 3:1)

The devil has a religion, and its text is the Bible. Starting with the very text you hold in your hands, he then twists, contorts, distorts, adds, and subtracts from it for his purposes.

He has his ministers just as surely as your church has a pastor. Their powerful “pulpits” are bombarding us with mis-information and dis-regard for the Word of God.

The only defense against the devil’s doctrines and his minions is the Word of God, aptly spoken (2). But even if we’ve memorized every verse, we are no match for an angel of light (3) quoting scripture! Our advantage as believers is that it’s the Spirit’s Sword, so He knows how best to deploy it—as seen when Jesus (in the power of the Spirit) cut the devil down to size.

It’s Eden-all-over-again out there. Every day the (S)Word of God is demeaned and discredited; or – worse yet – left to gather rust and dust on a shelf.

But in the hands of a believer whose Sword shines with constant use, and who depends on the Spirit to wield it, no weapon forged against it will prosper:

“No weapon forged against you will prevail,
and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
and this is their vindication from me,"
declares the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) see Genesis 3:1-6; Matthew 4:5-1 and Luke 4:1-13; Hebrews 4:12 and Ephesians 6:17; (2) see Proverbs 25:11; (3) 2 Corinthians 11:14

retreat

2012-01-16T08:54:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Timothy 3:1-13

mark this: 1 Timothy 3:2
Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach…

As Mom told us, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

But if I have a few nice things to say, does that clear me to say the rest? Well, I hope so, ‘cause here goes…

To be honest with you, I think the greatest problem in the local church is the professional pastorate.

When a man ain’t got nothing, he’s got nothing to lose. But when the mortgage, car payment, health insurance, and tuition depend upon maintaining a job, then what a man does is maintain. He certainly doesn’t go for broke, because “broke” is where he might find himself.

Our pulpits are manned by a cautious lot whose positions and paychecks factor into their decisions and their sermons. They tell the truth, for the most part, but not the whole truth. They faithfully reflect a few prosaic aspects of Jesus’ character, but the power of his persona and the poetry of his word rarely find their way into the average local pulpit--because those things might rock the boat, and rocking the boat might make waves. And we can’t have that.

I worked, for a while, in a professional (paid) position in a church. I had to go to a lot of meetings with local pastors and what I saw was not impressive. They were the nicest guys in town, but that’s about all I have on my list of nice things to say.

They weren’t particularly gifted in scripture. They weren’t particularly gifted in leadership. They were diligent, but creativity evaded them. They were brave, in a defensive posture. But they weren’t about to storm the fort, because going on the offensive might, you know, offend someone.

They were certified by seminaries and ordained by denominations, but whether or not they were commissioned by God was never clear to me.

They met for three years (while I was there, and probably a dozen years before that) to discuss what should be done to bring the gospel to everyone in our town. What they decided to do was hold a seminar (replete with an “expert” from California, at considerable cost) to further study this “initiative;” and to attend a retreat (at considerable cost for lodging and a facilitator) to pray over this initiative.

“Retreat,” in fact, remains my lasting impression of them, and a damning metaphor for their efforts. While I’m sorry to have to say that, my sorrow is not for their sakes.

The ones I’m sorry for are the people who sit in their pews, who never really learn scripture (except in some rote sense) because their pastor never really did; who never encounter the wild and wonderful, radical and revolutionary Jesus because their pastor either never has or (if he has) isn’t gifted to express Him.

Nice guys, all. They worked from sunrise to moonrise. I’m not sure what they’re taught in seminary, but they all, seemingly, majored in Diligence and Steadfastness and Earnestness and Consistency and Constancy and Prudence and Discretion.

Fine words, all. But they reflect just a portion of the persona of Jesus, just a sliver of the spectrum of the Light of the world.

***

In biblical terms, they had the fruit of the Spirit; most of them had the whole cornucopia, in bountiful abundance. But church leadership is organized according to the gifts, not the fruit, of the Spirit.

They had, to be sure, certain gifts of the Spirit, but not the gifts which church leadership is based upon.

It was dismaying and disturbing. But most of all it was just sad, because by and large we have organized the church around diplomas and denominations -- the dictates of man.

Three or four years in a seminary and they hand you a diploma. They are accredited to do so. But they're not authorized to hand out gifts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the narrow road is wide enough

2012-01-15T11:18:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Timothy 2

mark this: 1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Scripture doesn’t make sense until you are lost. That is the concept Jesus chose for the topic sentence of the greatest speech ever spoken:
"Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!” (Matthew 5:3 / GNT)

That is the fountainhead from which all understanding flows, so until you get there, you are spiritually nowhere.

And that’s why the Bible starts out with what is called “the law”—a bunch of rules that we, on our own, cannot consistently keep.

And that’s why Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount (quoted above) did us the favor of ratcheting up God’s standards, making it obvious that they are impossible to reach:
"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:21-22)

And that’s why the Bible says some odd things like this one:
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. (Romans 5:20)

Until we are stripped of any inkling of self-salvation, the cross of Jesus Christ – which offers help only to the helpless — offends our pride:
But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. (Gal 5:11)
(Here circumcision represents saving ourselves by keeping God’s rules, which would leave our spiritual pride intact. The offense of the cross is that we must look to another--to Jesus on the cross--because we are helpless to save ourselves.)

Somewhere--in the midst of all this brokenness, blood, and sin—lies the reason that God “permits bad things to happen to good people.”

Since only drowning men can see him, he sent the flood. He sent the Ten Commandments in order to increase the trespass (see Romans 5:20, above.). The grim reality is that when we pray for another’s salvation, we are inviting the torrent and the tide to sweep away any sense of security that person might have. Are you desperate enough to pray for that?

God is. He was so desperate to save us that he sent his one and only. If there had been any other way, you can bet that the genius of the universe would have done it that way. But there was not, so He could not.

The degree to which we approach his desperation is the degree to which we will understand the unique claims the Bible makes for Jesus Christ:

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

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1John 5:12)

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

God made a way for us to return to him, but it cost him everything he had. God the Father spent it all so that God the Son could pay it all. There was simply nothing left to build another road.

Jesus told us that the way would be narrow (1). But no one can say it’s not wide enough.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Matthew 7:13-14

the chief of sinners

2012-01-14T12:45:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Timothy 1

mark this: 1 Timothy 1:15 / NLT
This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – and I was the worst of them all.

I teach scripture by means of “pictures.” Technically called “types,” they are prophetic illustrations of the King, Jesus Christ, and of his Kingdom to come.

The lamb at Passover is prophetic of the coming Lamb of God. The blood on the doorposts is a prophecy of the cross. The hyssop which applies the blood of the lamb to the doorposts is a picture of faith. You get the picture.

Those are all types of the Redeemer, but is there a type of the redeemed? Is there a prototypical picture of those who are saved?

There sure is, but the “picture” is the “painter” himself!

The Apostle Paul, the voice behind most of the New Testament, is himself a picture of the church, boiled down to one man.

We alluded to this a few articles ago, when we wrote about Paul’s thorn in the flesh: (1)

Precisely what Paul's thorn in the flesh might have been is an enduring fascination among Bible commentators. I mean, you just aren't a real Bible commentator until you've weighed in on that issue!

Which is kind of odd, considering God didn't weigh in on it -- when he knew what it was, having caused it.

So Stand in the Rain is going to treat this issue with silence, like God did. We don't know what Paul's thorn in the flesh was -- and we don't care to, because that's the point!

Scripture's silence is as sure a mark of inspiration as its revelations are. Paul's particular "thorn" is not described in order that his consolations may avail for all to whom any thorn is given.

So in a very real sense, Paul's thorn in the flesh is whichever one you have.

***

Today we encounter another way in which Paul’s life and experiences are meant to be representative of all of us:
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. (1Timothy 1:15/NIV)

Other versions translate this to say that Paul is the chief of sinners (NKJV), the foremost of sinners (NASB).

However you say it, what it means is that if ever there were a day when you thought you were the worst sinner ever, you were wrong. The logical conclusion is that if Jesus could save Paul—the worst -- then He can save anybody, even me. Paul himself, then, is the Bible’s prototypical proof that no person is beyond salvation.

We are about to embark on what are known as the Pastoral Epistles. They were written by Paul to two of his young converts—Timothy and Titus—who had followed him on many of his missionary journeys and whom he had established as pastors of churches.

As you read the Pastoral Epistles -- which are all about the church -- don’t lose sight of the fact that the teller himself is the living breathing picture of what the body of Christ should look like!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) see 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

it won't rhyme until the end

2012-01-13T12:44:00.004-05:00

The Word for today:
Micah 7:7-20

mark this: Micah 5:2
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

Sometimes, when the whole truth is too much for me to understand (let alone express) I open my Bible to the shiny parts.

When Jerusalem--a man-sized city where prophets go to die--is too big for me, I slip away to Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a boy-sized city, where the Savior went to be born. So when I'm feeling more like a child of God than a man of God, that's where I go.

Bethlehem isn't very far from Jerusalem, just a few miles. I've often wondered whether Jesus could see the stable in Bethlehem from his cross atop Golgotha.

I wouldn't be surprised if he could. It would be just like God to bring them together at the end; because, right from the start, the stable and the cross rhymed in God's mind. I mean, where else could the Lamb of God be born but in a stable amongst shepherds? Certainly not in an inn!

***

When I escape to Bethlehem, I always start back here in Micah, where the Savior's birth is foretold:

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. (Micah 5:2)

Then, in my imagination, I backtrack way over to "the east," to join the caravan of wise me. I want the whole shining experience! I gloat along the way, ‘cause I know what Micah said about Bethlehem, when all the wise men knew, at first, was the prophecy of their countryman, Balaam:

I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. (Numbers 24:17)

So, I figure, the real wise man in this caravan is none other than me! Because the wise men follow the Balaam prophecy and the star all the way to Jerusalem, but then they have to stop and ask for further directions from there—which I (and Micah, of course) knew all along…

Jesus wasn't long in Bethlehem, maybe a year or two. Then an angel came and told Joseph that Herod would seek him out to destroy him.

That's when the Light left and the fears of all the years eclipsed Bethlehem's shining moment.
We know they were poor, because when Jesus was eight days old, they offered a few pigeons (1), which was what poor people brought to the Temple.

So we can assume that they had to sell the gold to pay for their escape to Egypt. That's a long, dark, and dangerous road, so they probably had to pay for protection, too. So there goes the frankincense, as well.

But remember when I said that God will rhyme -- every time-- the beginning with the end. Well, he does it again. Myrrh was a precious aromatic ointment, used as a perfume. Just a little dab would sweeten the situation.

But whenever a person died, all the myrrh that a household could muster was thickly applied to the body, to anoint it for burial.

The Bible doesn't really say so, but you just know that the poetic heart of God arranged it so that Mary never parted with the myrrh. She may as well have stored it in her heart, for all the good it would do anyone to try to steal it. It was the only baby "picture" she had left.

But when Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus took Jesus' body down from the cross, Mary knew what she had to do. The myrrh, after all those years, had found its purpose.

The sweetest rhyme in the whole story doesn’t come until the end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Luke 2:24

what we want or what we need

2012-01-12T08:57:00.005-05:00

(by Pastor Joe)

The Word for today: Micah 6:1- 7:6

Micah is a book all about wants and needs.

So is 7 Eleven. I want the donut, I need the milk, what will I choose?

(Please, anything but those off colored "hot dogs" that have been rotating on those off-colored rollers since the Clinton Administration.)

And the people of Micah's time, just like me in a convenient store, have a hard time distinguishing which is which. The humor begins towards the beginning of this book.

Micah has been given the Word of the Lord- exactly what the people need. But their appetites are inclined in a different direction.

"Do not prophesy," their prophets say. "Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us (1) ."

Who wants to hear bad news? Not me, and definitely the people of Micah's time. They preferred the sticking your fingers in your ears approach to anything that challenges their status quo.

How 'bout this zinger?

"If a liar and deceiver comes and says,`I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,' he would be just the prophet for this people (2)!"

This "prophet" and his "good news" would go over particularly well at college campuses and parking lot tailgates all over this nation. (He may actually be currently employed by Anheuser- Busch.)

Nope, folks who don't want to hear the truth rely on several vague notions that they will be somehow spared the consequences of their choices. They mutter to themselves things like this:

"Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us (3)."

Surely not them.

No, in this book of Micah, the people wanted a "get out of jail free card" so they could continue their own way, even if going that way was literally the road to Hell. But God, like any good parent, did not give them what they wanted, He gave them what they needed. What the people needed was a national kick to the pants. That kick came to them in the form of the Babylonians.

"You shall go to Babylon... (4)"

Not much fun- in fact this whole ordeal was full of death and suffering and pain. A temple razed, a proud nation humbled, God's own children cast out of their own Promised Land. But one thing can be said of this exile, it actually cured the Israelites of idolatry: "you will no longer bow down to the work of your hands (5)." Of all the areas where they fell short of afterwards, chasing after Baal or Molech or Asherah was no longer one of them. They took their national medicine, even if it were more bitter than vinegar, and it worked.

Times change, but people don't. The more I read about the people of Israel, the more I identify with them. How quickly we turn the Christian faith into a system to meet all our demands and wants. How quick we are to protest even God's truth when it becomes difficult. We know we need the meat and milk of the Word, but the competing Twinkies and Slurpees go down so much easier. Praise God that there is a way out!

We wanted a neat religious system that we controlled ourselves, instead what we go was the Untamable One who kicked our religious mumbo jumbo to the curb (6).

We wanted for God to leave us alone as we turned our back on Him, what we got was One who came to "seek and save the lost(7)."

We wanted a God who would say that our sin was no big deal, instead we what we got was One who told us it was such a big deal that only by His bloody sacrifice could we ever overcome it.

Thank God we don't always get what we want!

******************

(1) Micah 2:6

(2) Micah 2:11

(3) Micah 3:11

(4) Micah 4:10

(5) Micah 5:13

(6) Matthew 21:12

(7) Luke 19:10

subway walls and tenement halls -- part 2

2012-01-11T09:53:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
Micah 4:8-5:15

Yesterday we asked:

Are the prophets speaking to America today?

Today we will draw our conclusions on the wall.

***

The biblical prophets spoke specifically to their own time and place--to Israel and surrounding nations. But here is the biblical principle that makes their words as valid and immediate to us, now, as they were to Israel then:

God is no respecter of persons. (1)

Which means that God treats all alike--whether rich or poor, old or young, black or white, now or then.

The last phrase--now or then--is the one that writes the words of the prophets on our "subway walls and tenement halls" (2). God is eternal and unchanging, and so are his judgments. His spiritual laws apply just as universally as his physical laws do. Justice, and mercy, and faith--which Jesus called the weightier matters of the law (3) --have spiritual mass and volume, exerting consequences that are as predictable as the gravity exerted by the mass and volume of the spheres…

The overriding prophetic constants are these:

1. The soul that sins, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:20). The New Testament says it this way: The wages of sin is death… (Romans 6:23a)

2. When I see the blood, I will pass over you (Exodus 12:13). The New Testament says it this way: …but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. (Romans 6:23b)

Any person who does not apply the blood of principal #2 faces the judgment of principal #1. These principles form the breath--the inhalation and exhalation--of prophecy. They account for the prophetic voice, which seems at irreconcilable odds with itself -- breathing out pitiless judgment, breathing in unconditional forgiveness -- as it expresses the kindness and the severity of God (Romans 11:22).

These truths have been in effect from the foundation of the world (4), but did not collide, in time and space, until the cross of Jesus Christ.

Just so, the words of the prophets will be seen, ultimately, as no respecters of nations, or of eras. Though prophecy is enforced for some now, for others later, it will ultimately be enforced for all.

We can, and should, read the prophets with urgency--with a sense of immediacy and proximity. Certainly their prophecies were written to Israel, but just as certainly they are written for us.

Prophecy has engraved the initials "USA" on a card, and placed it at a certain seat at the table. We -- not the prophets -- are the ones who are late for the party.

But when we get there, we will face the music. And the song remains the same:

You have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription. This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN

This is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain. (excerpted from Daniel 5:22-30)

Whatever a nation sows--whether in Babylon, Israel, or America--it shall surely reap. Sooner or later, now as then, it's only a matter of time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Acts 10:34; (2) Paul Simon, "Sounds of Silence," 1964; (3) Matthew 23:23; (4) see Matthew 13:35; Revelation 13:8

subway walls and tenement halls -- part 1

2012-01-10T14:41:00.002-05:00

The Word for today:
Micah 3:1-4:7

Are the prophets speaking to America today?

The biblical prophets spoke specifically to their own time and place--to Israel and surrounding nations. But here is the biblical principle that makes their words as valid and immediate to us, now, as they were to Israel then:

God is no respecter of persons. (1)

Which means that God treats all alike--whether rich or poor, old or young, black or white, now or then.

The last phrase--now or then--is the one that writes the words of the prophets on our "subway walls and tenement halls" (2). God is eternal and unchanging, and so are his judgments. His spiritual laws apply just as universally as his physical laws do. Justice, and mercy, and faith--which Jesus called the weightier matters of the law (3) -- have spiritual mass and volume, exerting consequences that are as predictable as the gravity exerted by the mass and volume of the spheres.

Though God can -- and does -- delay the application of these spiritual constants, he does not cancel them outright. Their implementation merely awaits another day. Micah, for example, prophesied to both the northern kingdom ("Israel") and to the southern kingdom ("Judah").

When the northern kingdom fell first--to Assyria, during Micah's lifetime--it didn't mean that the southern kingdom was exempted from judgment. Their day was not yet, but it was coming: 150 years later, Judah's "day" was upon them, and they fell to Babylon

God's mercy delays judgment:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

But his mercy does not thwart judgment. In the very next verse of 2 Peter, spiritual "gravity" reasserts itself, and fire engulfs the planet as water did in the days of Noah:
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Peter 3:10)

***

From Babylon to Washington, the handwriting is on the wall. We will conclude "subway walls and tenement halls" tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Acts 10:34; (2) Paul Simon, "Sounds of Silence," 1964; (3) Matthew 23:23

Who is like God?

2012-01-09T12:29:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
Micah 1 and 2

Mark this: Micah 7:18-19
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Did you ever notice that God is a real nick-namer? He often gave names to people--names that captured their essence.

He renamed a guy named "Jacob" (which means "heel grabber" or "deceiver"--probably both) to "Israel" (which means "God's fighter" or "he struggles with God"--probably both).

He renamed the notoriously unstable "Simon," calling him "Peter" instead--a nickname that would translate today to "Rocky." At the time it was like nicknaming a fat guy "Slim." But Peter would live up to it, becoming a pillar of strength for the early church!

The gospel writer John, the "love disciple," didn't start out that way. When some people rejected Jesus, John and his brother James asked Jesus if they should call fire down from heaven to destroy them! Jesus, with a wink (I think) nick-named them "Sons of Thunder" on the spot. (1)

The essence of my teaching is that Jesus is "bigger." (How big? Bigger!)

It's an infinite word for an infinite God. He's bigger than me, bigger than sin, bigger than death, bigger than our problems, and -- literally -- bigger than the cosmos he created. So I hope that God's nickname for me would reflect my ministry of magnification.

That's why I envy Micah -- because his name does reflect the core of his teaching, which is captured in these verses:

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18-19)

The key to this book can be found in the meaning of the prophet's name. In Hebrew, Micah means "Who is like God?" or "Who is like Jehovah?"

So "Micah" was most likely a nickname given to this prophet because his message was characterized by the ringing question, "Micah? Micah?"

***

In the New Testament, Jesus had a cousin whose first name was John. But his last name wasn't "Baptist" or "Baptizer!" That was a name given to him by (I suspect) his cousin. He was nicknamed the Baptizer because, well, that's who he was!

I hope you take a second to step outside yourself long enough to wonder what nickname your life is forming. Nicknames tend to stick, so let's make it a good one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) see Mark 3:17 and Luke 9:54; cf. Mark 9:38

you're Cain until you're Abel

2012-01-08T08:03:00.003-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 13

mark this: 2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?

All the following traits and activities may characterize a real Christian, but they don't make a person a Christian.

Being born into a Christian family.
You can't inherit Christianity like a genetic trait. Every individual has to make a personal choice to believe in and obey Jesus Christ.

Going to church.
It's a good place to start, but you can go to church every week for your entire life without really knowing God.

Believing in God.
Followers of any number of world religions believe in God. But that doesn't make them Christians.

Praying to God.
Adherents to countless religions all over the world pray. Christians don't have a monopoly on prayer.

Doing good things.
Or at least, not doing bad things. Many atheists live decent lives and even do laudable things for humanity. They would be the first to say they're not Christians. So just being a good person is not enough.

Reading the Bible.
You can read the Bible without applying it to your life. Jesus said, "Blessed are hose who hear the word of God and obey it" (Luke 11:28).

***

Christians often look like the list above. The problem is that a lot of people who aren't Christians look like that, too. So that list is not at all a reliable indicator.

Probably the best test consists of just one question:
Am I a Cain or an Abel?

God doesn’t want us in suspense about where we stand. So in the first few pages in the Bible (Genesis 4), in the very first family, we find two brothers. Together, they stand as two great systems, two classes of people:
The lost and the saved;
The self-righteous and the broken-spirited;
The formal professor and the genuine believer;
Those who come God’s way and those who go their own way.

Abel came God’s way--
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. (Hebrews 11:4)

Cain came his own way, with his own offering. God wanted a lamb brought, which points to the sacrifice of Christ.

The difference between the boys wasn’t a character difference. The difference was the offering they brought.

When you come to God as a sinner, with nothing to offer except the blood of Jesus Christ, then you are a Christian. You are saved and no one can take away your birthright because He won’t let anyone take it away. Mark the day down, and hold yourself a birthright party.

You’re not a Christian by being born in this so-called Christian nation. You’re not a Christian because you were born in a Christian home. You’re not a Christian because you are a member of a Christian church.

You’re a Christian because you individually came to Christ and said, “God save me, a sinner.”

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.” (Luke 18:9-14)

If you have never come to God on those terms (his terms) I would not let the sun set on another day before that conversation in prayer was held. You might have been teaching Sunday school for 20 years. You might be the pastor. It doesn’t matter. By default, we are all Cains until we are Abels:

All of us like sheep have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way. (Isaiah 53:6)

So take stock of your faith--
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5)
This verse is asking us to examine whether we trust God for our salvation, or whether we trust ourselves for salvation. If it’s Jesus you look to for salvation from sin, then you are in the faith; you passed the examination!

If you are depending on Jesus Christ for eternal life, then welcome home. But if, like Cain, your faith is really in yourself--in your sparkling personality, your obvious virtue (everybody says you’re a great guy), or in the good deeds you've done---then you’ve got a prayer to pray:

God save me, a sinner, by the blood of your Only Son, Jesus.

Now, you’re a Christian.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the eloquence of silence

2012-01-07T09:45:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 12:11-21

The Bible is full of subtle proofs that man did not write it! Here's an example:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know-- God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. (2 Corinthians 12:2-4)

If a man had written this, he would not have stopped where Paul does. He would have laid it on thick, sensationalizing what he saw and glorifying himself in the process.

I don't pay too much attention to this kind of thing, but it seems that every year there's another book about someone who slips through death's door into heaven and then makes his way back to tell us all about it.

I don't believe a single syllable.

But if ever a person were to tell me that he'd seen Paradise but, sorry, he wasn't allowed to say anything more, that would be the person I would have to take seriously--because silence concerning such a matter would sound a lot like God:
It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. (Proverbs 25:2)

That Paul would rather glory in his infirmities and not in the fact that he'd had a vision is another subtle but sure sign that the Author behind the "author" of 2 Corinthians is God.

***

Precisely what Paul's thorn in the flesh might have been is an enduring fascination among Bible commentators. I mean, you just aren't a real Bible commentator until you've weighed in on that issue!

Which is kind of odd, considering God didn't weigh in on it -- when he knew what it was, having caused it.

So Stand in the Rain is going to treat this issue with silence, like God did. We don't know what Paul's thorn in the flesh was -- and we don't care to, because that's the point!

Scripture's silence is as sure a mark of inspiration as its revelations are. Paul's particular "thorn" is not described in order that his consolations may avail for all to whom any thorn is given.

So in a very real sense, Paul's thorn in the flesh is whichever one you have.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kingdom reversals

2012-01-06T12:17:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 11.21b-12:10

mark this: 2 Corinthians 12:10
For when I am weak, then I am strong.

You will note, as you go through the Bible, that in the Kingdom of God, things often get turned inside out and upside down.

You will find that many of these "kingdom reversals" turn our presumptions on their heads.

The kingdom of heaven has priorities that -- relative to our way of seeing things -- go beyond paradox, beyond irony, and all the way to antithesis. Oftentimes, the kingdom of heaven's values are actively opposed to ours.

When we understand this, many of the questions we have are cleared up:

Q. Why didn't God answer my prayer?
A. Well, he did! But you got an answer that you weren't expecting because God answers according to his way of seeing things and not ours.

Here's an example of what answered prayer can look like:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know -- God knows. And I know that this man -- whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows -- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say. To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:2-10)

I know a man, it begins. (So do we--his name is Paul!)

Paul was caught up to heaven, where he saw inexpressible things that he was forbidden to tell! (This, by the way, is the Bible's clearest hint of what the "Rapture" will be like. The word here translated "caught up" is the same Greek word -- harpazo -- which we see in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, from which we derive the term "Rapture." )

Then God allowed a physical ailment (1) -- a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan -- so Paul wouldn't think he was more special than the rest of us earthbound types! And God would not take it away, because, he said, My power is perfected in weakness.

At first, this may have sounded as strange to Paul as it does to us. But over time, his experience with this "weakness" proved to him that it was indeed a source of strength. So, it seems, he quit praying for it to go away!

These Kingdom reversals are shown all the way through scripture. In the Bible's earliest chapters, Joseph's life is a specific example of God allowing bad in order to bring about good:
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:20)

But for the best example, I refer you to the cross of Jesus Christ -- where God allowed not just a single thorn in the flesh, but a whole crown of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was some kind of bodily weakness or disease; possibly it may have been an eye affliction (cf. Galatians 6:11).

put your best foot forward -- part 3

2012-01-05T11:44:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 11.1-21.a

mark this: 2 Corinthians 11:2/NLT
For I promised you as a pure bride to one husband, Christ.

Over the past couple days, we saw that God sees Jesus in us because we have become one with him!

God designed marriage to illustrate this one-ness:
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

That Old Testament picture reached its fulfillment in the union of Christ and the church:
For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:30-32)

To further illustrate this one-ness, the church is called the Bride of Christ in the Bible's second-last chapter.

So all the way from the second chapter to the second-last chapter of scripture, God draws prophetic pictures of a person who is so thoroughly identified with another person that they can no longer be separately considered. These prophecies are fulfilled in the mystical, magical, and mind-blowing New Testament phrase in Christ.

Then God warns us not to even think about trying to separate what he now sees as one:
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh: so then they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder. (Mark 10:7-9)

That warning, in its most important sense, means that you had better not look at yourself as something less than you are. God sees 'our better half' -- Jesus -- when he looks at us, so we'd better begin to see things the way he does!

In the same way, God wants the world to see Jesus when they look at us, the church. That is why the church is designed to function according to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The gifts of the Spirit are meant to put our best foot forward so that the world sees Jesus, not us!--
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11)

Where I am stingy, Shelley is supernaturally, Spirit-naturally generous, so we exercise "her" generosity when they pass the basket! She is my complement, completing what I lack.

Where another man is not 'well-versed,' I am gifted and commissioned by the Spirit to tell The Story of Jesus Christ through whatever means are available to me. I complete what that man lacks.

But where I am musically inept, that man can play. So we place him, not me, at the piano. And when he sings "Jesus Paid it All," we are transported to the cross.

What is seen and heard, then, isn't what we lack but what we have been gifted to display. Thus, when the church implements the concept of the complement, the world sees the best in us--just as God does.

When we all -- the body of Christ -- put our best foot forward, accentuating what is best within each one, then we who are imperfect show Jesus to the world.

But when we-- out of selfishness, pride, ignorance, fear, or tradition -- design our efforts according to any principle other than the gifts of the Spirit, then what the world sees is what we are without Jesus -- just a bunch of sinners, forever falling short of the glory of God (1).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) see Romans 3:23

put your best foot forward -- part 2

2012-01-04T10:57:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 10

Yesterday, we saw that God designed marriage to be a complementary relationship, meant to bring out the best of both:

The benefits of this plan are many, and many-splendored. When we implement the concept of complement, we can negate many weaknesses and turn them into strengths. For example, where the Bible says that "God loves a cheerful giver," I used to feel left out. I am, on my own, just like this guy:

"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!" (1)

But Shelley is the absolute opposite; her first impulse is to shovel the money that comes in the front door out the back door.

So what we do is put our best foot forward, which in the case of giving would be Shelley. And -- here's the concept to remember -- I get credit in God's eyes for being a cheerful giver. How great is that! Because she's my complement, God gives me a compliment that I don't deserve. He sees the two as one flesh (Genesis 2:24) and credits her right-ness, in this regard, to my account.

That last sentence should ring a bell, because just as marriage is a complementary relationship, so is the church:
For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:30-32)

Marriage is a prophetic picture of the church--those who are in Christ and therefore credited with his right-ness.

If this sounds a little complex and spiritual, just remember that God sees the best in us!

When I yield to Shelley's generosity--when I don't get in the way--God sees me as a cheerful giver, when I, of myself, am not.

In the same way, the church -- known in the Bible as the Bride of Christ (1) -- is seen as one with Christ and credited with his right-ness:
What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Romans 4:3, 23-24)

***

Tomorrow, we will see how the gifts of the Holy Spirit function according to God's complementary design.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) See Revelation 21; cf. John 3:29

put your best foot forward -- part 1

2012-01-03T12:51:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 8:16-9:15

mark this:
Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)

and this:
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

One of the most beautiful words in the language is complement. (Notice that this is not about saying nice things to somebody. That's a compliment, with an i.)

Complement derives from the word complete. It means something that was once lacking is made whole. The concept of the complement forms the basis for procreation, for marriage, and for the church--so I'd say it's not only beautiful but important!

The complement of my life (and the love of my life!) is Shelley. Where I lack, she doesn't. I might have the ways, but she has the means. I might have the zig, but she has the zag.

Even biologically, I've got the why and she's got the wherefore. (I hope I said that right.)

So I'm just not myself without her. It says so way back in the second chapter of the Bible:

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

The benefits of this plan are many, and many-splendored. When we implement the concept of complement, we can negate many weaknesses and turn them into strengths. For example, where the Bible says that "God loves a cheerful giver," I used to feel left out. I am, on my own, just like this guy:

"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!" (1)

But the Shellster is the absolute opposite; her first impulse is to shovel the money that comes in the front door out the back door.

So what we do is put our best foot forward, which in the case of giving would be Shelley. And--here's the concept to remember -- I get credit in God's eyes for being a cheerful giver. How great is that! Because she's my complement, God gives me a compliment that I don't deserve. He sees the two as one (see above) and credits her right-ness, in this regard, to my account.

And while Shelley majors in grace, I major in truth. First of all, I study--hard and unceasingly--to know what truth is. Then I'll tell it, without blinking, to paupers, pastors, presidents, potentates, principalities, and powers! So when the moment calls for someone who's not shy, I'm that guy.

So between the two of us, when we lean on each other's strengths, we manage to reflect the whole apple (of God's eye), who is (you'll recognize the name) this guy:
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)

Marriage, then, is a complementary relationship, meant to express the best of both.

Tomorrow, we'll see how the church is designed to be an even more intricate and beautiful orchestration of complementary parts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) from "A Christmas Carol," Charles Dickens

faith is taking God at His Word

2012-01-02T17:50:00.003-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 8:1-15

mark these:

For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

Our house is an old farmhouse that somebody, along the way, reconfigured into a double by carving two small apartments out of a medium sized house.

When we first moved in, we rented out "the other side." But as the boys got bigger and bigger, our side got smaller and smaller, so we stopped renting in order to reclaim the space.

Since then, I have spent almost all my free time in the little kitchen over there. I read a lot of books there, listened to a lot of rock and roll there, and drank a lot of beer there. I know I'm supposed to say something holy here, but I won't. I loved those days--every book, every song, and every beer.

But then I ran into Jesus, and things started to change. Priorities got reshuffled, and as they did, my little kitchen transformed, too.

The big old speakers we used to favor in the old days were moved out in order to squeeze in another bookcase and a printer and a scanner. The books on those shelves turned into Bibles. You'll still find a beer in the back of the bottom shelf, but the labels of that particular brand have changed since they were placed there.

As the boys went through school, those walls reflected their changes, too. It began when I tacked up a few pictures they'd drawn in school, and a construction-paper snowman or two. Soon their Little League schedules appeared there, and some ribbons they'd won in grade-school races.

It wasn't long before I ran out of walls. So, not able to bear taking any of it down, I just tacked and taped the new things over what was already there. Then the next year I taped and tacked over those.

But when the legs of my chair wore right through the old linoleum layers beneath them, it was time to lay new flooring.

So today we moved all the bookcases out and the table and the refrigerator. Then, as Shelley was sweeping up all the gunk that had accumulated behind the fridge, I startled her when I went to the wall and took a little picture down, then a faded construction-paper star, then a junior high basketball schedule…

***

Over Christmas we went to Pittsburgh to visit Shelley's sister Jennifer, her husband Chris, and their three boys (all in grade school). Before then, I had been aware of digital picture frames, but had never really seen one in use.

But Jennifer had managed to put her version of my kitchen/office wall inside a digital picture frame! The frame displayed picture after picture after picture--and none of them were faded, taped, tacked, or covered over with other pictures.

***

"What are you doing?"

Shelley had wanted to take them down, because they had long ago become a real fire hazard.

"I'm going to put them all in a digital frame and display them all day, every day, forever!"

It took a long time to take them down. We placed them carefully in a big box to be digitally photographed later. It will be a big project, but I'm glad I found a way to save and savor them.

Out of it all, we left only one piece on the wall. Some Sunday school teacher (we're not sure who) had one of the boys (were not sure which) make a little card that said this:

Faith is believing the Word of God
and acting upon it, no matter how I feel,
because God promises a good result.

If that's all that boyhood brought them, and all that school taught them, I would consider their youth well spent, and their education second to none.

So when the room is re-floored and the walls repainted and our sons ask where it all went, I'm going to tell them it's all being digitalized so that what was underneath can be seen once again.

Then I'm going to point to the only thing that will remain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

you in the Book, and the Book in you

2012-01-01T11:24:00.002-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 6:11-7:16

mark this: 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Over the last few days, we boiled the Bible down to the crux. Along the way, I identified my favorite Bible version (1917 Scofield), the most important of the Testaments (the Bible makes no such distinction, so neither will I), the most important of the books (I say Matthew), and the Bible's most instructive verse (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Which leaves us just a step away from completing the progression. So, why not ask…

Does the Bible have a most significant word?

I think it does, and (excluding the names of God) I'll nominate the little word in.

That may sound a little crazy to you, because you were thinking love or faith or redemption or salvation or sanctification, but I nominate 'in' because it unobtrusively holds scripture together.

I remember reading an article, a few years ago, in which the writer asked the experts--in the fields of construction, engineering, and the like--which is the most important single item sold in a hardware store. Their answer was unanimous: the screw.

In the same way, in goes unnoticed as it holds things together. Here, to begin with, is the most profound verse in scripture:
At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. (John 14:20)

You in me, and I in you…

"You in me" -- that is salvation:
God sees everyone as either in Christ or out of Christ. You are either in Him by faith or you are out of Him with your sins still upon you. If you are in Christ, then God sees you in Christ, and His righteousness is your righteousness. You stand complete in Him.

“I in you” -— is sanctification.
That is Christian living down here. Is Christ living in you? Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

And notice how crucial in is to what Stand in the Rain considers (as we explained over the last few days) the most all-encompassing verse in scripture:
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

***

In the Bible's most appropriate New Year's verse, to be in Christ is the sole prerequisite from which all else follows:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

If you are in Christ (by faith in Him) then you are brand new. You are eternally new. You, in fact are newer now than you were ten seconds ago! But the only way to behold the new you is to stop reading the Bible as if it were about somebody else.

Because you are in Christ, you are what the Bible calls a child of promise:
Now we, brothers and sisters, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. (Galatians 4:28)

All the radical and revolutionary promises that scripture contains are aimed toward you. So put yourself in this Book, and this Book in you. A very real way to accomplish that is to personify the pronouns! Instead of reading "he" and "she" and "we," read your name into the text instead.

It will sound something like this:
"Now Susie, just as Isaac was, is a child of promise."

It's all true, Sue. It's all new, and its pages are open, beckoning you. Come on in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the caption of the cross -- part 2

2011-12-31T06:45:00.000-05:00

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

mark this: 2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Some people (I know, because I'm one of them) carry with us, in our hearts and heads, only half of the cross. Our cross, then, looks like this:

Now, mind you, half a cross is better than none! It forms a big minus sign, which reminds us that our sins have been totally and forever paid for, forgiven, wiped out, and forgotten by God. So I love my half a cross!

The first part of 2 Corinthians 5:21 shows us exactly how God subtracted our sins:
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us

(This does not say that God made Jesus to be a "sinner." He became sin as our substitute and sacrifice.)

But the subtraction of our sins leaves us morally neutral--nothing bad, but nothing good either. And a moral vacuum -- a "swept and empty house" -- would invite all kinds of trouble:
"When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." (Matthew 12:43-45)

That's why Jesus also added something to us at the cross. He added a vertical dimension that lifts us out of moral neutrality all the way to the infinite righteousness of God. That's what the second part of 2 Corinthians 5:21 shows us:

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Right there at the cross, before the bad had a chance to jump back into our swept and emptied souls, God filled us with a right-ness that is like his because it is his.

And that's why 2 Corinthians 5:21 forms the Bible's best caption for the cross:
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It shows us that, when understood in its entirety, the cross is a big plus sign:

He not only subtracted our sins but added to us His righteousness! This is the very crux of our faith; but it is, sad to say, the most overlooked concept in Christendom. So let's not overlook it any longer.

Let's not go through another year with only half of the cross.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the caption of the cross

2011-12-30T10:34:00.000-05:00


	God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 4.7-5.10

mark this: 2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

You might be surprised to know that I own very few Christian books that aren't a Bible. I have never read, outside of the gospels, any biography of Jesus. I have never read a single work of Christian fiction. I haven't read a single how-to-be-a-better-Christian book. (I know, wise guy, you can tell!)

I own one Bible commentary, by (of course) the late, great J. Vernon McGee. And about a million years ago, some well-meaning person gave me "The Late, Great Planet Earth," which I read all the way through because the girl (we were young then) who gave it to me was cute and I thought reading it would advance my unsanctified cause.

That's about it for Christian books that aren't a Bible. But in the category of Christian books that are a Bible, I overdid it! In my little kitchen/office where I live and move and have my being, I can count 48 of them. And there are a few more upstairs.

Among them are the various translations--the KJV (of course), the ESV (highly recommended!), the NKJV (for when I'm not feeling Elizabethan), the NIV (better than its rep), the American Standard of 1901 (worse than its rep), the NLT (the old Living Bible, without the funk), the Living Bible (funk intact), the RSV (from whence came the ESV), the HCSB (for my inner Baptist), the NASB of 1977 (solid) and the updated (why?) NASB of 1995.

I have the Scofield Reference Bibles of 1909, 1917, and 1967. I have a Thompson Chain Reference Bible (reserve yours now for next Christmas!), the MacArthur Study Bible, and a now out-of-print Starting Point Study Bible, with a glossary to die for.

You start to see the magnitude of my "problem." But when you get three per year (on my birthday, Jesus' birthday, and fathers' day) things tend to get unmanageable after just the first decade…

So I'm often asked, by those who have managed to squeeze into this shrinking space, which one is my favorite. Or I've been asked essentially the same question in more colorful ways: "Which would you grab if the house were afire?" or "If you were exiled to the Isle of Patmos for the duration, which would you stow away?" Without hesitating long enough to blink, I invariably reply, "The 1917 Scofield." When it comes to the last dance, I will only have eyes for her.

***

I've also been asked questions which boil things down even further. A few times--because I lean so heavily, in my teaching, on Old Testament pictures of New Testament concepts--I have been asked which of the Testaments is most important. Stubbornly (because I do not recognize any but a man-made distinction between them) I won't give an answer!

Many, many times I have been asked which Bible "book" I consider to be most important. After hemming and hawing about Genesis, Psalms, and Romans, I usually opine "Matthew."

Every now and then, I am asked (usually for the pure speculative fun of it) which is the one essential verse of the Bible.

As a Bible student, I wouldn't know where to begin with a question like that. But as a Bible teacher, I can tell you that here, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we have reached the most instructive verse in the Bible:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Pastor Joe and I, lo these 1000 blog articles later, have often commented that 2 Corinthians 5:21 seems to serve, more than any other verse we're aware of, to crystallize so many of the crucial concepts of scripture.

But, you might say, that's just Joe and me--a Youth Pastor and a rank amateur--talking hermeneutical, pedagogical trash. So we found a real expert (you know, somebody who lives more than 500 miles away!) who says the same thing about this verse--waxing more rhapsodical than we do, with superlatives more outlandish than ours:

2 Corinthians 5:21 is not the puzzle of the New Testament, but the ultimate solution of all puzzles; it is not an irrational quantity that has to be eliminated or explained away, but the key-stone of the whole system of apostolic thought. It is not a blank obscurity in revelation, a spot of impenetrable blackness; it is the focus in which the reconciling love of God burns with the purest and intensest flame; it is the fountain light of all day; the master light of all seeing, in the Christian revelation.

Whew! That's the opinion of James Denney, who wrote a classic, enduring commentary on 2 Corinthians (1).

Tomorrow, we'll take a closer look at this indispensable verse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) James Denney, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 1903.

the triple-braided cord

2011-12-29T09:30:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 3:1-4:6

mark this: 2 Corinthians 3:18
We are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

If you want to know what love looks like, the inter-relationships of the Trinity is (are? our grammar fails us) love's truest and most beautiful picture.

If you want to know what salvation looks like, the inter-workings of the Trinity are (is? our grammar fails us) salvation's truest and most beautiful picture.

Love will never fail, nor will your ongoing salvation, because the relationships and works of the Trinity will not unravel:
A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

2 Corinthians shows us that our salvation is in the past, present and future:
God, who raises the dead, delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. (2 Corinthians 1:9-10/KJV)

Our salvation was planned by the Father, purchased by the Son, and progresses (at this moment) under the direction of the Holy Spirit:
We are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

This progression is clearly depicted in the Old Testament. When God heard the helpless cries of the people in bondage, compassion stirred his heart, which moved his hand to save them. (Exodus 3:7-8)

He directed that the blood of a lamb be placed on the doorframes. When he saw the blood, the death angel passed over. (Exodus 12:3-7, 13)

Having saved them from sin, he led them, by a pillar of cloud and fire, all the way through the wilderness to the Promised Land. (Exodus 13:21)

The Trinity has conspired to save you! Salvation did not stop at the door in Egypt or at the cross on Calvary Hill.

You may be in the wilderness now, but just hold on to the triple-braided cord and He will pull you through.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

more to come…

2011-12-28T09:57:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 1:23-2:17

mark this: 2 Corinthians 1:21-22/ New Living Translation
It is God who gives us, along with you, the ability to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment of everything he will give us. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22/ New Living Translation)

We over-mystify the Holy Spirit. It's easy to see how that can happen:

1. In the King James Version, which is far and away the most influential English translation, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Holy Ghost. Boo!
2. The Holy Spirit shines his light on Jesus, and not on himself. So the Spirit stays relatively mysterious because we just aren’t told that much about him.

Therefore, misunderstandings about the Holy Spirit often arise. Some people have claimed that we don't have the Spirit unless we audibly practice certain spiritual gifts.

At best, that teaching left the rest of us confused. It left many of us bitterly divided from other believers. But worst of all, it left us feeling left out.

Stand in the Rain is not going to revive those civil wars. But we are going to leave the left-out feeling included again…

There is no one visible or audible affirmation of the presence of the Holy Spirit. He is, after all, a spirit! That's what this verse is saying:
We live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Our relationship to the Tri-une God is, from front to finish, by faith. Our forgiveness through Christ is not visibly discernible! It is revealed from faith to faith (Romans 1:17). That means it becomes real when we first believe, then more and more real as we more and more believe.

Our empowerment by the Spirit is on the same basis. We received a down payment --a promise of His Spirit--when we first trusted Jesus:
"And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:49)

This promise then becomes more and more real to us as we more and more trust the Promis-er. That's what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 1:21, such a remarkable passage that it bears repeating:

It is God who gives us, along with you, the ability to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment of everything he will give us.
(2 Corinthians 1:21-22/ New Living Translation)

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
(2 Corinthians 1:21-22/New International Version)

First, we note that the Spirit is placed in our hearts, not on the tips of our tongues!

Next, we note that what we have of the Holy Spirit is a promise--a deposit, an installment, a pledge--of more to come!

The Bible does not teach that if your ears hear your tongue speak unknown words, it is a sure sign of the Spirit.

The Bible does teach that a sure sign of the Spirit is when your heart can make sense of God's Word:

"These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." (John 14:25-26)

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:10-14)

If the Bible and its centerpiece--the cross of Jesus Christ--make sense to you (1), it is because the Holy Spirit has invaded your heart and is gathering intelligence!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) see 1 Corinthians 1:18-24

I never promised you a rose garden (part 2)

2011-12-27T10:42:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 1:12-22

The theme verse of 2 Corinthians, it seems to us, is 2 Corinthians 12:10b:
For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Now let's return this jewel to its setting:
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

Yesterday, we briefly defined "the prosperity gospel." Its proponents teach that the Bible promises health and wealth to faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

To which Stand in the Rain must respectfully reply,
I beg your pardon…

Yesterday's article could have been sub-titled "Chronicles of Catastrophe." In it, we listed verse after verse from 2 Corinthians which conveyed the events of the Apostle Paul's travels, trials, travails, and tribulation. Here is just a sampling of words and phrases from those verses:

Hard pressed, suffering, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, wasting away, without sleep or food, disgraced, insulted, punished, saddened, beaten, jailed, mobbed, overworked, cold, naked, hungry, thirsty;

In danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.

You get the picture; it's painful to read such a list, let alone live it!

Those are the experiences of a paragon of the faith, the greatest missionary Christianity has seen this side of Jesus Christ.

Note that health, wealth, and prosperity didn't find their way into the mix.

***

Paul was getting rich, but his Financial Advisor encouraged him to pursue an other-worldly investment strategy:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

He was succeeding beyond his wildest dreams (1), but not in ways that could be seen by the naked, natural eye.

His financial advisor was also a prophet, the greatest the world has ever known. Here's what he'd foretold concerning his followers' futures:
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Which Paul, looking back over his life, confirmed in the last letter he would ever write:
All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12)

***

Those who seek to follow Jesus Christ must never measure success in the ways that the rest of the world does. Our promises are spiritual blessings:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)

These blessings often look quite different--even the opposite of--material, worldly success. So says James:
Consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. (James 1:2-3)

And so says Peter, who reiterates what Jesus said about the riches we are depositing in heaven:
Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope, and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away. They are for you, who through faith are kept safe by God's power for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the end of time. Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer. Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:3-7)

The Word of God, through the mouths of Jesus, James, Peter, and Paul, tells us to expect trouble as we follow Jesus through a "garden" that more closely resembles Gethsemane than Eden.

But rest assured, as you face the troubles that our Savior and the saints of old have faced, that the interest on your heavenly investments is compounding! --
The first came before him, saying, 'Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.' And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.' (Luke 19:16-17)

The reason we face these trials is not to test our faith, but to prove it. The race we run proves we are champions:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)

The battles we fight prove we are conquerors:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35-37)

To hear the man on the TV tell it, it sounds like "health, wealth, prosperity." To hear the men in the Bible tell it, it sounds like "run, fight, glory."

Somebody isn't telling the complete truth. But I have a feeling that the prosperity gospel is making somebody rich, if you know what I mean.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) see Ephesians 3:20

I never promised you a rose garden (part 1)

2011-12-26T09:24:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
2 Corinthians 1:1-11

You may have heard of "the prosperity gospel." The prosperity gospel promises "success" to those who follow Jesus Christ.

Also referred to as the Health and Wealth gospel, its proponents claim that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians. Their doctrine emphasizes that sickness and poverty are curses broken by faith in the atonement achieved by Jesus Christ.

The true gospel promises success, too.
But let's find out what "success" sounds like in 2 Corinthians:

For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Corinthians 1:5)

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2 Corinthians 4:16-17)

Instead, in everything we do we show that we are God's servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties. We have been beaten, jailed, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food. By our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness we have shown ourselves to be God's servants—by the Holy Spirit, by our true love, by our message of truth, and by the power of God. We have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves. We are honored and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet we speak the truth; as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but, as you see, we live on. Although punished, we are not killed; although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything. (2 Corinthians 6:4-10)

I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. (2 Corinthians 11:26-27)

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

***

Those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ are bound for eternal glory. But between here and there, we are never promised a rose garden.

Tomorrow, we'll follow Jesus through a "garden" we're sure to encounter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas & the Cross (Part 3)

2011-12-25T06:03:00.015-05:00

(by Pastor Joe)

The Word for Today: Psalm 41

Mark this: Psalm 41:9

"Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me."

Merry Christmas!
Most folks would wonder what in world we were doing in the middle of Psalms on Christmas morning. Most believers would recommend that we fast forward to Matthew or Luke. But not those who are Standing in the Rain! From the very beginning, it has been our main goal to demonstrate that God's Word is indeed God's Word. From Genesis straight through Revelation, Jesus Christ is literally on every page, so Psalm 41 is a perfectly fitting and acceptable passage for Christmas, Easter, Arbor Day, Columbus Day etc.

So without further ado, we conclude our Christmas and the Cross mini series (you can check out the first two yourself if you've missed the last few days.)

***************

So King David is at it again, pouring out his heart and soul, sharing his needs and weaknesses, giving praise and glory to God, and out of all this we once again get another picture of our Messiah. In this Psalm, David is really hurting. He's been through so much already: trouble, sickness, enemies, and rumors; but what really cuts him deep is betrayal. Ouch, that really smarts! All of you who have been betrayed know that first hand. It's one thing when an enemy or the circumstances of life seem to conspire against you, its a whole new level when you are blindsided by someone you care about.

During his life, and especially his later years, David had to deal with employers (Saul), counselors (Ahithophel), friends (Joab) and family (Absalom, Adonijah) backstabbing him. Yet, from one conspiracy to the next, David's life and throne were preserved. In even his darkest moments, there was always a way out for him. Our Savior was not as fortunate.

He suffered one betrayal to the next. In his early childhood, a tyrannical king named Herod sought to kill Him after he feigned worship to the Magi (1). His ministry was one of misunderstanding and rejection. His family, his hometown, the religious leaders, the political leaders, the crowds, and even his own disciples betrayed Him in one way or another. Today's passage foreshadows the role of Judas. Jesus Himself tied in this Psalm in the last supper portion of the Gospel of John:

...But this is to fulfill the scripture: ‘He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me....’ Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.... It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon (2).

Yet somehow, that was the plan from the beginning (3).

Perhaps the best word to describe mankind's basic response to God is betrayal. From the beginning we were loved and created in His image. Yet from that first betrayal in the Garden of Eden, through the rest of the Old Testament, it seems to be one rejection of God to another. Rejecting God's authority, His Law, His Covenants, His Kingship over Israel, His leading, his Messengers, and ultimately His Word. In the New Testament, humanity tops even all of that by rejecting the very Son of God.

This Christmas, don't fool yourself into thinking that just because you somehow acknowledge the wonder of the birth of Christ, that you're somehow immune to this basic human condition.
Instead, we need to understand that our betrayal separated us from God, our rejection of God caused God to send His One and Only Son, that we were co-conspirators with Judas himself, because our sins are what ultimately led to His rejection and crucifixion. Its only from this place of our own treachery and hostility towards God, that we can begin to understand the amazing message of Christmas and, consequently, the Cross.

******************
(1) Matthew 2:1-12
(2) John 13:
(3) see Isaiah 53, to start

Christmas & the Cross (Part 2)

2011-12-24T06:00:00.012-05:00

(by Pastor Joe)

The Word for Today: Psalm 40:11-17

Mark this: Psalm 40:12

"...my heart fails within me."

Yesterday we began a three day tour, attempting to link Christmas & the Cross; events that are a mere 33 years apart in time, but eons apart in most people's minds. Our guide is none other than King David, the author of these two Psalms, who has already shown us that there was One to be born, who could actually come and carry out the will and covenant of God perfectly.

So here is day two of your helpings. Enjoy, and have a wonderful Christmas Eve.

****************
Yesterday this Psalm made the point of how David certainly knew his share of deliverance from the Lord. Today, the focus seems to be a bit more on the troubles he faced: overtaken by his own sin, surrounded and taunted by his enemies, poor and needy. David certainly faced all kinds of pain and anguish, some caused by others (i.e. King Saul or Joab), some caused by his own sin (the Bathsheba incident or an ungodly census). But like yesterday, David's ordeals seem to be pointing to something or Someone beyond himself.

That's exactly where Christmas comes in. Remember our main thesis over these three days: there is no Christmas without the Cross! Yesterday we saw Jesus as the One and Only who could come to do the will of God. Now we see that doing the will of God was much more costly than anyone could ever have imagined.

In today's reading, David says: "my heart fails within me."
David's heart figuratively was broken under the weight and consequences of his own sin. But the Gospels tell us that Jesus Christ was literally crushed under the weight of yours & mine. He actually died of a broken heart.

What on earth do I mean?

Let me take you back to the cross, to John 19. Here we have a thorough account of Jesus's criminal sentencing, crucifixion, death and burial. Important medical details emerge in verses 31-34. Normally, the cause of death from Roman crucifixion was asphyxiation. The victim could no longer breathe properly and would die. (That is why the victim's legs were often broken, as they were with the two robbers, to speed up the agonizingly slow suffocation).

But with Jesus, this was not the case. Listen to this outstanding insight given by a medical doctor:

"Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. John 19:34 states, "And immediately there came out blood and water." Thus there was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and the blood of the interior of the heart. This is rather conclusive post-mortem evidence that Jesus died, not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium (1)."

David knew much about heartbreak, but he could not possibly have known the full ramifications for the Messiah to come. Yet a full millennium before Christmas, here it is. So as we celebrate the Child that is born, don't forget the Son who was given. Remember that His heart was literally rent for us. That was the price when "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2)."

*******************

(1) The Crucifixion Of Jesus: A medical explanation of what Jesus endured on the day He died
By Dr. C. Truman Davis ; March 1965, Arizona Medical Association.

(2) 2 Corinthians 5:21

Christmas & the Cross (Part 1)

2011-12-23T06:00:00.014-05:00

by Pastor Joe

The Word for Today: Psalm 40:1-10

Mark this: Psalm 40:7 -- Then I said, "Here I am, I have come-- it is written about me in the scroll."

Thirty three years is not much, time wise. After all, 1978 was not so long ago. That's when the ill fated Susan B. Anthony Dollar Coins went into circulation. (These glorified quarters lasted a few sorry years.) It might have been a while since you last saw one, but it wouldn't take long at all to procure one (but that supposes you want one in the first place!)

For the next three days, we are attempting to link two historical events that are roughly 33 years apart. Christmas & the Cross. Unfortunately, for most people, including many Christians, these two events seem much further apart than that. In our modern world, Christmas has been divorced from the Cross. The Nativity has been rent asunder from Good Friday. In the eyes of most people, those events might have well have been 3,333 years apart.

Our modern culture can't get enough of its schmaltzy, watered down version of Christmas. It can't get far enough away from the cruel execution of Jesus on the Cross. That's why, if you want to make a movie about the cross (say The Passion of the Christ [2006]) you are met with hostility and hatred and false accusations from the beginning. But if you want to make a movie about Christmas, (say the Nativity Story [2006]) there are no such objections.

But we at Stand in the Rain ain't going out like that! In fact, its our contention that the Bible links those two days irrevocably. So just in time for all your Christmas festivities, here's a healthy dose of the cross:

********

King David wrote Psalm 40, so it's no surprise that his distant offspring would be mentioned here. Jesus has this fascinating habit of popping up in least expected places in the First of our two Testaments. How--dare we say--messianic of Him.

In this Psalm, David certainly has noble motives and communicates wonderful truths. What a testimony of deliverance and restoration, of worship and recounting of God's faithfulness. David even seems to understand the proper place of ceremonial sacrifices and offerings (something that nearly all the world gets wrong.) But when we come to verse 7, we see where David ends and where Christ enters in. You see, David could not ultimately and perfectly carry out God's will. Nor could any of us. As hard as we try, as much as we might desire, our best is never good enough.

But in Christmas we have hope, because One is born who actually could.

From His first breath in that musty stable, to that time when He was twelve and supposedly lost in His Father's house--"I must be about My Father’s business(1)"--to His very first sermon in which He declared boldly, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing (2),” and ultimately, to the cross, He alone has come and done the whole will of God.

The author of Hebrews understood this, and this is why he connected Christ to Psalm 40.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.
Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.’”(3)

What is the result of one who actually could keep God's covenant flawlessly? Its exactly this: "we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (4)."

"And that, Charlie Brown, is what Christmas is all about (5)." Thank God that it's all written in the scroll.

*************

(1) Luke 2:49 (NJKV)

(2) Luke 4

(3) Hebrews 10:5-7

(4) Hebrews 10:14

(5) 1 Linus 22:27

as dead as a door-nail

2011-12-22T12:13:00.002-05:00

The Word for today:
Psalm 39

mark this: (Psalm 39:4)
Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.

Outside of Luke 2 and Mathew 2, there is no better Christmas story than "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

If you've never read it in the original, do yourself a favor in the next few days. Skip the Scrooge McDuck version and reach for the real thing. It doesn't take much longer to read the original than to watch any movie version of it. Some of the movies come pretty close to capturing the spirit of Christmas (the 1951 version comes this close) but Dickens' original nails it:

Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail…

In the story, as you well know, Scrooge encounters the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. He is forced to face his life and its consequences. Like my past and perhaps your own, it was not always a pretty picture.

The Bible, however, does not recommend that we dwell in the past:
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:18-19)

No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us heavenward. (Philippians 3:13-14)

The Bible recommends that we live in the now…

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalms 118:24)

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)

…while letting the ever-nearer future spur us on:
Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. (Psalm 39:4)

***

In the coming New Year, may we cultivate the habits of forgetting what's past, and letting the future shape the present.

Whoever we were died with Jesus Christ:
We know that the persons we used to be were nailed to the cross with Jesus. (Romans 6:6b)

So let the dead bury the dead while you follow Jesus into the future (1).

Ditch the ghosts of your past, and all the skeletons in your closet. They have no claim on you now (2).

Let the new creation realities shape your new year. Meet your future self in the Bible: he/she is described throughout the New Testament, and bears an uncanny resemblance to Jesus:
For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. (Romans 6:5)

Introduce yourself to your future self. Then be that person right now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Matthew 8:22; (2) Romans 6:6b-7

a salvo of Merry Christmases!

2011-12-21T12:18:00.008-05:00

The Word for today:

Psalm 38

Stand in the Rain very seldom departs from the script(ure), but we thought it appropriate to convey the most remarkable Merry Christmases that we have ever heard…

We must say, before we begin, that there are far more significant issues in the kingdom of God than the form our greetings take. Frankly, we all have bigger fish to fry.

But make no mistake: greetings are a telling detail; while in and of themselves they don't amount to much, they accurately gauge the prevailing cultural winds.

***

I'm not quite sure what I just saw, but it may have been a turning of the tide.

I'm no historian, so I don't know when our long retreat began. But I know what I have seen -- that since I reached the age of awareness, a dreary and incessant parade has passed before my eyes.

It was the sad and slow attrition of faith. By any measure, in any field--legislation, adjudication, education, you name it--the forces of faith have been in retreat across this land that we call home.

It has not been a willing retreat. Certainly it has not been the hasty retreat that we saw in Europe, where Christianity raised the white flag long ago.

But last night, I saw a reversal. I don't know if it will last; I don't know if it's occurring anywhere else; I have no way to tell. But what I can tell is this:

In a high school auditorium, in a small town -- Middleport, New York, USA -- three well-meaning teachers (the band, orchestra, and choir directors) carefully toed the p.c. line as they cheerily wished the audience "Happy Holidays" at the conclusion of their particular performances.

And each time they did -- what with my wondering ears did I hear? -- someone in that auditorium, in a voice loud and clear, wished them "Merry Christmas!" in return.

This wasn't just a solitary sniper against the emptiness that the other side has made of Christmas.

It began that way--with just a single voice after the band director's greeting. But after the orchestra director's greeting, two others contributed their proud Merry Christmases to the volley.

Then the real fun began. By now they were waiting in ambush. The choir director could barely get the inane p.c. niceties out of her mouth before they were met with a barrage of Merry Christmases.

That first, single shot had inspired a salvo. The rout was on!

***

It all may have been an aberration. The long retreat might resume today. But if a person here, then there, then wherever you are, were to stand his ground, were to lift her voice, the p.c. crowd would tire, after a while, of the hassle.

School administrators, I am sure, would still be required to constrain their faculty from the brazen lawlessness which reference to Jesus Christ has become in our schools. (A teacher profanely dropping the f-word in class will get a reprimand; a teacher respectfully dropping the JC-word will face a hearing.)

But if we were to keep up the pressure, I'll bet that the directors of bands, orchestras, choirs, and school plays would find a way to avoid "Happy Holidays" by substituting a nondescript "Thanks for attending our performance" -- and leave it at that.

That, I admit, would not signal a major victory for the cause of Christ. But it would be something -- a W to write on the ledger against all the L's recorded there. And if we were to chalk up just a few more W's with it, we would put cultural Christlessness on the defensive, forced to think twice before stammering the empty phrases of their tedious creed.

***

So -- on behalf of a brave, unnamed man in the Royalton-Hartland High School auditorium who directed a chorus for Christ; and on behalf of that chorus, whose voices rose with his -- may I convey to you their very heartfelt Merry Christmas!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

gonna find out who's naughty or nice

2011-12-20T13:43:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:

Psalm 37:21-40

mark this: (Psalm 37:1)

Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong.

While we're making our lists and checking them twice, we often peek over the fence to see what the Joneses have on their "lists."

And then we mentally tabulate life's winners and losers. Because we all know that he who has the most toys…

That all makes sense when we're talking Santa Claus, but when we're thinking in terms of the Kingdom of God, our tabulations are often upside down. Here, from the perspective of the King Himself, are the winners in the Kingdom of God:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:3-12)

It can be mentally and emotionally wrenching to think the thoughts of God. But if ever we're going to discern his hand at work we must bear in mind these three principles:

Axiom #1: God is good.

Axiom #2: God plays to win--no matter what it takes.

Axiom #3: God spanks his own. But he does not spank the devil's children.

#1 would be easy to see, if it weren't for #2! God aims for the highest good (#1) for you and yours. But because his eyes are on the ultimate outcome, he is not at all fussy about the means to those ends (#2). He will impoverish, debilitate, shame, sadden, persecute, and disgrace us all the way into his eternal kingdom--if that's what it takes. He broke Jacob's leg and broke Jesus' heart to get Jacob and you and me into his kingdom.

He will squeeze the pride out of your soul--if that's what it takes to achieve his eternal purposes. Thus, when seen from his perspective, this begins to make sense:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

He will visit your heart with sorrow--if that's what it takes to win in the ultimate end. Thus, when seen from his perspective, this begins to make sense:

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

***

So I used to be bothered, as David is in Psalm 37, by Axiom #3--"God does not spank the devil's children:"

I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. (Psalm 37:35/KJV)

But we're told to take the longer view -- God's view -- of the situation:

Don't worry about the wicked. Don't envy those who do wrong…

The wicked plot against the godly; they snarl at them in defiance.

But the Lord just laughs at the wicked, for he sees their day is coming. (Psalms 37:1, 12-13)

"Checking the list" right now can be confusing, because it can look like the bad guys are winning. But in the end, we are going to find out who's naughty and who's nice:

I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off. (Psalm 37:35-38/KJV)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fear not.

2011-12-19T11:15:00.004-05:00

The Word for today:
Psalm 37:1-20

Today, and for the last couple of days, we've tried to put Christmas in a whole-Bible context. Certainly, we did not attempt to jam every verse of scripture into your stocking, but by taking a seemingly un-Christmasy Psalm (#35), some scenes from Zechariah and Job, a Christmas carol ("God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen") and -- today -- a passage from Revelation 12, we've tried to re-connect Luke 2 and Matthew 2 to the rest of the Bible, and paint the Star of Bethlehem against a wider sky.

Just ahead -- a few days before Christmas, and on the Day itself -- Pastor Joe will complete the series by placing Christmas in the context of the cross.

***

Certainly Christmas is a light show: the wise men followed the star; the glory of the Lord shone 'round about the shepherds. But it is painted against the darkest background:

"In thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."

In the Temple, on the eighth day of Jesus' life, the prophet Simeon solemnly declared the future:
Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too." (Luke 2:34-35)

Indeed, darkness itself is very likely why Christmas eventually found its way to December 25th. While we can come very close to the year Jesus was born, no one knows the month (let alone the day). There is more evidence for April or September than December; but since we can't be sure, the days surrounding the winter solstice in late December -- the darkest days of the year -- are poetically true to the time of his birth, symbolically enhancing the arrival of the prophesied Star:

I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near;
A Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel,
And batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult. (Numbers 24:17)

In Revelation chapter 12, the arrival of the Star out of Jacob is seen through this darker prism:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron…
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God."

***

In Scripture -- The Story of Jesus Christ -- Christmas is when the Light of the World pierced the darkness, and the tide of battle turned. So rest ye merry, ladies and gentlemen. Let nothing you dismay:

From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same:
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by Name.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

"Fear not then," said the Angel,
"Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Saviour
Of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him
From Satan's power and might."
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let nothing you dismay.

2011-12-18T10:09:00.003-05:00

The Word for today:
Psalm 36

Over the next couple days, Stand in the Rain is going to re-connect the Christmas story to the rest of the Bible (and the rest of the year). We'll see how Psalm 35 and Revelation 12, when connected to "the Christmas Story" in Luke 1-2 and Matthew 1-2, tell the Whole Story of Christmas…

I used to feel left out of certain Psalms. They seemed to be about situations that did not apply to me. So I read them as if I were behind a buffer zone, far removed from the battle.

Psalm 35 is an example:

Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay. (Psalms 35:1,4)

I used to skip right through a Psalm like that because it did not seem to relate to my life. No one is seeking my life or plotting my ruin, I thought.

But scripture and experience taught me to think again; the Bible and my own eyes made it clear to me that we are plotted against and pursued, whether we know it or not. Now I take Psalm 35 personally, because the battle has come to my backyard. It's even gotten to the point where I don't read Psalm 35 as much as I fervently pray it.

***

The Bible teaches us that our battles are not against flesh and blood, but against organized spiritual forces:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

Psalm 35:15 depicts these unseen attacks:
Attackers gathered against me when I was unaware. They slandered me without ceasing. (Psalms 35:15)

These forces deploy the strategies of their commander, Satan, who is identified in Revelation 12:10 as the accuser of our brothers:
They devise false accusations against those who live quietly in the land. (Psalms 35:20)

Job chapter 1 and Zechariah chapter 3 show us actual "courtroom scenes" where Satan appears before the LORD to accuse the people of God. In the scene from Zechariah, the Angel of the LORD, the pre-incarnate (pre-Christmas) Christ, rises up in defense of those whom he has redeemed.

This is the same "Angel" of the LORD who rises up, in Psalm 35, to defend David against those who hunt him down:
Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me.
Take up shield and buckler; arise and come to my aid.
Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me.
Say to my soul, "I am your salvation."
May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay.
May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away;
may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them. (Psalms 35:1-6)

Certainly Christmas is a lightshow: the wise men followed the star; the glory of the Lord shone round about the shepherds. But when seen in the context of the entire Bible, Christmas is when the Light of the World pierced the darkness, and the tide of battle turned:

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We Three Kings of Orient Are--Not!

2011-12-17T12:37:00.003-05:00

The Word for today:

Psalm 35

Look what they've done to my song, Ma
Look what they've done to my song.
Well they tied it up in a plastic bag
And turned it upside down, Ma
Look what they've done to my song. --Melanie Safka

There's so much that's just right about Christmas! But there could be much more.

Please don't think I'm going to bewail glitzy commercialism and Santa Claus and tinsel and all that schlock. That's what unbelievers make of their Xmas, so what more should we expect?

(By the way, the gift-giving and -getting that we believers participate in with the unbelieving world is probably the one thing we have gotten perfectly right about the day when God, who so loved the world, gave us our greatest gift.)

What bothers me isn't what they've done, but what we've failed to do with the boundless possibilities which Christmas, when rightly told, presents. First of all, the church (the historic church, over centuries of time) let the essential story -- the heralded fulfillment of Isaiah's Immanuel ("God with us") prophecy (1) -- be confined to a day in December as if it were a birthday party.

We could have taught the entire gospel -- the saving plan of God -- with Christmas as a lustrous launching point. We could have proclaimed the entirety of God's great Good News with this as the first sentence:

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." (Luke 2:10)

But by and large we've managed to disconnect Christmas from the rest of the year and the rest of the Bible.

I knew things had gone askew when I heard "We Three Kings of Orient Are" and it occurred to me that there weren't three, they weren't kings, and they weren't from the orient.

Other than that, it's a fine song!

***

Over the next couple days, Stand in the Rain is going to re-connect the Christmas story to the rest of the Bible (and the rest of the year). We'll see how Psalm 35 (today's reading) and Revelation 12, when connected to "the Christmas Story" in Luke 1-2 and Matthew 1-2, tell the Whole Story of Christmas.

We'll work "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" -- a Christmas carol that does tell the Whole Story -- into the mix. So, until then, let nothing you dismay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) see Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23

a Mary Christmas, and a Magnifi-cent New Year

2011-12-16T10:31:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:

Psalm 34

Psalm 34 is a riveting song, and a rousing prayer. (Yup, prayers can be rousing!) It's full of promise and power and the personality of God. It starts with these unforgettable lines:

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Magnify, in the case of the infinite God, is an illogical term. We really can't make God bigger than he is. We can't overstate, enhance, hype, or embellish him.

The only way for God to get "bigger" is for us to get closer to him. Thus it follows that the one Bible character who knew him the best magnified him the most. That, of course, would be Mom:

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. (Luke 1:46-53)

I'm in awe of those lines (known as the Magnificat) and of the young Mom who spoke them. Every year at this time, I read and re-read her lines. They've become my perennial New Year's Resolution.

The only way for God to get bigger is for us to get closer to him. Resolve with me, then, to be at least one step closer to Jesus on this day next year:

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Have a Mary Christmas, and a Magnifi-cent New Year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the hill where the LORD hides

2011-12-15T11:31:00.002-05:00

The Word for today:

Psalm 33

mark this: Psalm 32:7

You are my hiding place;

You shall preserve me from trouble;

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.

When I was a kid, I had a special spot. I'll bet you did, too.

When I went to my special spot, I went alone. I never showed anyone, or even told anyone, about my spot. To this day, no one else knows where it is.

And to this day, I still go there.

I grew up there. A couple times, I broke down there. There's not an emotion I've ever felt that I haven't brought to my spot. I brought triumph and disgrace, and longing and listlessness.

I've often spoken aloud to my spot, but for the most part I've listened to the silence "she" speaks. I've seen the wind there, and I've heard the snow.

Everything seems enhanced there. Night is darker, stars are brighter; the grass is greener than the sky is blue; and the blue is truer than true.

I can't say with any certainty, but I think that my spot was a kind of surrogate for God, whom I had not yet met when I first found her. "She" spoke and remembered and understood; she knew more than there was to know. She was here before here was here.

And when I was with her, I was there; I'd arrived. She is where the sidewalk led.

***

I found my spot when I was 11 years old. Twenty years after that, they buried my Dad not too far away. Since then I have often walked, on a summer's afternoon, from my spot to his.

There, on his gravestone, is a verse from "Requiem," by Robert Louis Stevenson:

This be the verse you 'grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

***

Longing, for both David and I, wouldn't stay in place. Our desires incarnated; David found his hiding place in God:

You are my hiding place;

You shall preserve me from trouble;

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.

I found, in Jesus Christ, the existential imperative--the AM who I am not--that every moment of my experience demanded there must be.

So I can't help but wonder, whenever I stop at my Dad's grave, if his longing ever formed the face of God. I hope so.

But it may be that all he found was a fragment of verse on the stone beneath the pine tree where the meadow meets the slope of the hill.

May life hold more, in its store, for you and me and mine and yours: may your word become flesh, may your longing unveil her face; may we 'grave a better verse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

higher math

2011-12-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:

Psalm 32

Alright, grab your calculator, because we've got some figurin' to do.

We'll start right here in Psalm 32:

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. (Psalm 32:2/NKJV)

Before we do the math, we have to know the vocabulary. Iniquity means sin. Impute could be translated as count, account, credit, accredit, reckon, or even compute! Another version says it this way:

Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him. (Psalms 32:2/NIV)

Notice that the scripture doesn't say the man has no sin. The man has sin, but God doesn't count it!

Can God do that? He sure can, because He didn't just pay for sin, he overpaid. He offered infinite value to clear a finite debt. No matter how many people receive his offer of forgiveness, the blood of Christ covers the cost--and then some. There's more than enough collateral to cover any contingency. (I use these cold and calculating commercial terms only because the Word of God used them first: covenant (a contract); credit; earnest (a down payment); wages; debt. Even the word redeem connotes a transaction. But we soon warm up to the words when we understand them as the terms and conditions of God's guarantee of eternal life!)

***

Finally, who is that blessed man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity? Is he some goody with a few minor moral mishaps?

Only if murder is a minor moral mishap! The sins that form the background and context for Psalm 32 are the sins committed by King David in what the Bible refers to as the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5/NKJV). So what was "the matter?"

David, bored and lonely, was restlessly pacing the roof of his palace when he spied a beautiful woman as she bathed. What ensued was a cavalcade, a parade, an onslaught, and an avalanche of sin. You can read the entire catalog in the book of 2 Samuel, but among them would be pornography, adultery (with Bathsheba), murder (of Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba's husband), conspiracy, treason, incest, rape, and civil war. Moreover, the untimely deaths of David's favorite son (Absalom) and another son (an infant) were direct consequences of this affair.

So David was the man forgiven and those were the sins not imputed! But why David and why not another? Does God play favorites, does he pick and choose the sinners and the sins he will (or will not) forgive?

The answer is found in Psalm 51, also written in reaction to the matter of Uriah the Hittite. David does not plead innocence, or offer any shred of his own righteousness:

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;

According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. (Psalm 51:1-3)

Clearly, David is sincerely repentant. But repentance alone is not what enables God to forgive. Tears and penitent prayers leave God as unable to forgive sin as you and I are.

So it's not the repentance--the turning--that gives God the authority to forgive. It's what David turns to that counts:

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.

Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. (Psalm 51:7-9)

Hyssop is what David turned to, and that's what allowed God to forgive his sins. "Hyssop" is an Old Testament word that covers great spiritual ground. It was spoken here, by David, like we speak of "the cross."

"Hyssop," like "the cross," denotes the blood of God's designated sacrifice. The hyssop branch (with its fluffy leaves) was used at the first Passover to daub the blood of a lamb on the door frame, which caused--which enabled--the death angel to pass over:

When I see the blood, I will pass over you. (Exodus 12:13)

The blood of a lamb on a hyssop branch enabled God not to count their sins against them, because it pointed through time to the blood of the Lamb of God on a cross.

The blood of Jesus, which had not yet been shed in real time, made it possible for God to forgive David "on credit"--because Jesus had promised to pay in the future. Thus God could say, of David, what he'd said about Abraham:

Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

If you turn back to the blood of the same Lamb that David and Abraham looked forward to, then you can take your long list of sins and add them to my long list of sins, which I added to David's long list of sins, which he added to Abraham's long list of sins.

No matter how many or how awful they were and are, they all add up to zero.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

his word becomes your own

2011-12-13T12:15:00.002-05:00

The Word for today:

Psalm 31

mark this: Psalm 31:5

Into your hands I commit my spirit.

and this: Luke 23:46

Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last.

and this: Acts 7:59

And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

We're going to get a little spooky today, so if you can't stand to be spooked, then sayonara for now, and we'll see you tomorrow…

Perhaps spooky isn't the right word. Maybe "transcendent" is the word for what we encounter in Psalm 31.

We know that Jesus took your place on the cross. But did you know that you can take his place--that you can see through his eyes?

You can, when you realize that Psalm 31 is what went through the mind of Jesus on the cross:

Into your hands I commit my spirit…

Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.
My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends-- those who see me on the street flee from me.I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.
For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side; they conspire against me and plot to take my life…

My times are in your hand.

(You can turn to Psalm 22 and see even more of what Jesus saw from the cross.)

God has enabled us to think about things the way he does, by giving us the mind of Christ (1). He's enabled us to sense and feel things like he does, by giving us his Spirit. And by giving us Scripture, God has enabled us to see through his eyes.

Conversely, the incarnation (that's how theologians refer to what we call "Christmas") enabled God to see from our perspective. There's not a situation we face that he hasn't seen with our very own eyes:

For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:17-18)

***

These exercises in the transcendent should help you to understand why the Psalms can often be seen from multiple points of view:

You can see them through the immediate author's eyes--in this case, King David.

You can see them through the prophetic eyes of the Author of Scripture--the Holy Spirit--who turns our eyes to the cross.

You can see them through the eyes of the Author of our Salvation (2)--Jesus--who speaks from the cross.

And as you take up what Jesus called your own "cross" in order to follow him (3), his Word will write itself across the story of your own life, as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) 1 Corinthians 2:16; (2) Hebrews 2:10; (3) Mark 8:34

look out your window, and remember

2011-12-12T11:03:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:

Psalm 30

mark this: Psalm 30:1

I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths.

Every time I post a blog article, I pick a picture to accompany it. I hope you notice them, because sometimes I spend an inordinate amount of time poring over hundreds of Google images to come up with something just right. But sometimes, just between you and me, I can't find an image to enhance the article, so I have to settle for an image that won't detract.

This is the 915th Stand in the Rain article, which means that we've selected (counting the days with multiple images) upwards of 970 pictures. Of them all, the picture you see above is my absolute favorite.

I'm not even sure if it's (aesthetically speaking) a good picture. My heart is so invested in that picture that I'm not sure my eyes could impartially evaluate it.

My sons brought it home from their Sunday school class in 2003, when they were 8 and 9. It ended up on the kitchen table with the Sunday paper. At first I didn't know there was a poster there, because it was folded in quarters, into booklet form, and I only saw the scribbled-out memory verses that were listed on the back cover:

Luckily, I unfolded the little booklet before tossing it away. And there it was!

The poster grabbed me at first glance; I distinctly remember my heart double-clutching and missing a beat all at the same time!

I'm not sure why. I'm not a poster person at all. And of all the treasures buried in the Psalms, this particular verse had escaped my notice.

Then, as I was taping my newfound treasure to the wall I noticed the booklet's front cover:

I don't want to oversimplify things because neither you nor I are 8 and 9 years old. But I also don't want to over-complicate the things that scripture makes very clear:

Jesus' role in God's plan is to lift us out of the depths. (That sentence will suffice, as well as any, as a synopsis of the Bible.)

And our role in God's plan is to exalt Jesus. The catechism's first axiom says so:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. (1)

So the essence of the Plan is that we lift up the one who lifted us up:

I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths. (Psalms 30:1)

I'm not sure what form that might take in your life, but you'll be able to figure it out if you just look out your window on a rainy day, and remember.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) Westminster Shorter Catechism

things too wonderful for me

2011-12-11T08:21:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:

1 Corinthians 16

mark this: 1 Corinthians 16:13

Be on guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong.

Yesterday, we told all about the spiritual gifts.

There were all kinds of religious words in that article: words like intercession, evangelism, and exhortation; words like discernment, apostleship, shepherding, and prophecy.

Why, those are words that can bring us to a religious boil! They are so spiritual and scriptural and sacred, somehow.

So I do not want to demean them, but if I had to, I'd trade in that list for this one:

Be on guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong. (1 Corinthians 16:13)

When I took the spiritual gifts assessment, it told me that I have the gifts of knowledge and teaching. When you take the assessment, it may show that you have the gifts of discernment and intercession and exhortation.

But when we take the larger tests of this life, may they show us, above all, to be true, and brave, and strong.

***

I have followed my star, as it were. Since I found that my gifts are knowledge and teaching, I have done nothing--day and night and year and decade--but learn and learn and tell and tell. I have delved ever deeper into God's Word and into its distillation, the cross.

But what I'm impressed with most of all is not his genius, nor his power, nor his glory. What leaves me in awe aren't the mysteries, nor the things too wonderful for me. (1)

I've heard and read all about his omniscience, but the wonder is that he knows me. I've read and studied all about his omnipotence, but that's nothing compared to when he lifted me up.

What leaves me awestruck isn't his Truth as it goes marching on, but how he stops to wait for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) Psalm 131:1; Psalm 139:6

Christmas, every day

2011-12-10T12:32:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Corinthians 15:35-58

I believed in Jesus for a long while before I made it through the doors of a church.

Then, having made it through the doors, I…umhh…sat down. For a couple years, maybe three, I was an onlooker. I'm not really good at being an onlooker, but I didn't think I was good at anything else either. So I looked on.

Then it was announced that a "spiritual gifts assessment" was being made available. All we had to do was make an appointment and we could find out what a spiritual gift is--and which spiritual gift is ours!

So I made an appointment, filled out a questionnaire, and then waited for yet another appointment to go over the results with an elder.

I met with elders Jim and Dave. Dave told me, "Franklyn, there's good news and bad news."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the good news is that, according to our questionnaire and the answers you gave, you have the gift of teaching--explaining the Word of God so people can understand."

"So, what's the bad news?"

"Well, according to our questionnaire and the answers you gave, you're sort of like John the Baptist."

"What could be bad about that?"

"You know how John the Baptist says that he can't even tie Jesus' shoes?"

"Yes. I know the passage."

"Well, Franklyn, our assessment says that, except for teaching scripture, you can't even tie your own shoes!"

***

You must understand that Dave was just kidding. I mean, I think he was. I hope he was!

Anyway, I was an onlooker no more. I had a shiny new gift and I was determined to open it!

The major teaching in scripture concerning spiritual gifts is right here in 1 Corinthians 12-14, where you can read all about the spiritual gifts in general. (Other key passages can be found in Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4.)

Descriptions of specific gifts are listed in an addendum ("Discover Your Spiritual Gifts") at the end of this article.

To find out which of those gifts is yours, I encourage you to take a spiritual gifts assessment, like I did. (I found a good one that will take 10-15 minutes and is automatically tabulated. Just click here and follow the directions...)

Once you find your gift, by all means open it. Having opened it, if you don't know what to do with it (I didn't) then just talk it over with any experienced believer who has opened his or her own gift. They can show you how to turn it on and make it run!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Discover Your Spiritual Gifts!

A spiritual gift is an expression of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer, empowering him/her to serve the body of Christ, the church.

Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28-30; Ephesians 4:11; and 1 Peter 4:9-11 contain representative lists of gifts and roles God has given to the church. A definition of these gifts follows.

Administration—Persons with the gift of administration lead the body by steering others to remain on task. Administration enables the body to organize according to God-given purposes and long-term goals and to execute effective plans for the accomplishment of those goals.

Opportunities: group leader, office, personnel
Scripture: Luke 14:28-30; Acts 6:1-7; Acts 27:11; 1 Cor. 12:28; Titus 1:5

Apostleship—The church sends apostles from the body to plant churches or to be missionaries. Apostles motivate the body to look beyond its walls in order to carry out the Great Commission.

Opportunities: missions, evangelism, discipleship
Scripture: Luke 6:12-13; 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 2:20; Eph. 4:11-13

Celibacy—This gift is the special ability that God gives certain members of the Body of Christ to remain single and enjoy it in order to dedicate oneself to the expansion of God’s kingdom; to be unmarried and not suffer undue sexual temptations.

Opportunities: "undivided interests for the sake of the kingdom of heaven"--more time to devote to ministry; more focus on ministry concerns.
Scripture: Matt. 19:10-12; 1 Cor. 7:7-8, 32-33

Counseling—The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to minister words of comfort, consolation, encouragement and counsel to other members of the Body in such a way that they feel helped and healed.

Opportunities: counseling, crisis center, evangelism, visitation ministries
Scripture: Acts 14:22; Romans 12:8; 1 Timothy 4:13; Hebrews 10:25

Creativity—Expressing God’s kingdom, His love and His truth, through alternative means of expression -- such as drama, multi-media, dance, song, poetry, etc.

Opportunities: drama, choir, evangelism, media, missions, construction
Scripture: Psa. 150:3-5; 2 Sam. 6:14-15; 2 Sam. 23:1; Mark 4:2, 33

Discernment—Discernment aids the body by recognizing the true intentions of those within or related to the body. Discernment tests the message and actions of others for the protection and well-being of the body.

Opportunities: counseling, prayer, personnel
Scripture: Matt. 16:21-23; Acts 5:1-11; Acts 16:16-18; 1 Cor. 12:10; 1 John 4:1-6

Encouragement/Exhortation—Possessors of this gift encourage members to be involved in and enthusiastic about the work of the Lord. Members with this gift are good counselors and motivate others to service. Encouragement/exhortation exhibits itself in preaching, teaching, and ministry.

Opportunities: counseling, teaching, preaching
Scripture: Rom. 12:6-8; Acts 11:23-24; Heb. 10:24-25

Evangelism—God gifts his church with evangelists to lead others to Christ effectively and enthusiastically. This gift builds up the body by adding new members to its fellowship.

Opportunities: visitation, outreach, missions
Scripture: Acts 8:5-6; Acts 8:26-40; Acts 14:21; Acts 21:8; Eph. 4:11-13; 2 Tim. 4:5

Faith—Faith trusts God to work beyond the human capabilities of the people. Believers with this gift encourage others to trust in God in the face of apparently insurmountable odds. They are able to discern with extraordinary confidence the will and purposes of God for His work.

Opportunities: prayer, counseling, finances
Scripture: Acts 11:22-24; Acts 27:21-25; Romans 4:18-21; 1 Cor. 12:9; Hebrews 11

Giving—Members with the gift of giving give freely and joyfully to the work and mission of the body. Cheerfulness and liberality are characteristics of individuals with this gift.

Opportunities: finance or planning committee, office
Scripture: Mark 12:41-44; Rom. 12:8; 2 Cor. 8:1-7; 2 Cor. 9:2-8

Helps—Those with the gift of helps recognize practical needs in the body and joyfully give assistance to meeting those needs. Christians with this gift do not mind working behind the scenes. They invest the talents they have in the life and ministry of other members of the Body, thus enabling those others to increase the effectiveness of their own spiritual gifts. (Note: This gift may be confused with the gift of serving. Someone with the gift of helps usually aids one individual [e.g., an administrative assistant], while a person with the gift of serving is willing to do whatever is necessary for a cause or project.)

Opportunities: organizing volunteers, working in the kitchen, fundraising
Scripture: Mark 15:40-41; Luke 8:2-3; Acts 9:36; Romans 16:1-2; 1 Cor. 12:28

Hospitality—Those with this gift have the ability to make visitors, guests, and strangers feel at ease. They often use their home to entertain guests or to provide for those in need of food and/or lodging. Persons with this gift integrate new members into the body.

Opportunities: homeless, encouragement, housing
Scripture: Acts 16:14-15; Romans 12:9-13; Romans 16:23; Hebrews 13:1-2; 1 Pet. 4:9

Intercession—The special ability to pray for extended periods of time on a regular basis and see frequent and specific answers to their prayers, to a degree much greater than that which is expected of the average Christian.

Opportunities: prayer, encouragement, hospital, hospice, shut-ins
Scripture: Luke 22:41-44; Acts 12:12; Col. 1:9-12 & 4:12-13; 1 Tim. 2:1-2; James 5:14-16

Knowledge—The gift of knowledge manifests itself in teaching and training in discipleship. It is the God-given ability to learn, know, and explain the precious truths of God’s Word. A word of knowledge is a Spirit-revealed truth.

Opportunities: counseling, book store, library, teaching
Scripture: Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 2:14; 1 Cor. 12:8; 2 Cor. 11:6; Col. 2:2-3

Leadership—Leadership aids the body by leading and directing members to set goals in accordance with God’s purpose for the future and to communicate these goals to others in such a way that they voluntarily and harmoniously work together to accomplish those goals for the glory of God. Leadership motivates people to work together in unity toward common goals.

Opportunities: men’s or women’s ministries, discipleship, support groups
Scripture: Luke 9:51; Acts 7:10; Acts 15:7-11; Rom. 12:8; 1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:17

Mercy—Cheerful acts of compassion characterize those with the gift of mercy. They feel genuine empathy and compassion for individuals (both Christian and non-Christian) who suffer distressing physical, mental or emotional problems, and translate that compassion into cheerfully done deeds which reflect Christ’s love and alleviate the suffering.

Opportunities: hospital, benevolence, counseling
Scripture: Matt. 20:29-34; Matt. 25:34-40; Mark 9:41; Luke 10:33-35; Acts 11:28-30; Acts 16:33-34; Romans 12:8

Pastoring—The ability to assume a long-term personal responsibility for the spiritual welfare of a group of believers. Those with this gift are compelled to encourage others to work together for the body’s sake. (Note: this gift is also referred to as shepherding and is not given to only those in church leadership roles.)

Opportunities: committee chairperson, visitation, small group leader
Scripture: John 10:1-18; Eph. 4:11-13; 1 Tim. 3:1-7; 1 Peter 5:1-4

Prophecy—The gift of prophecy is proclaiming the Word of God boldly. This builds up the body and leads to conviction of sin. Prophecy manifests itself in preaching and teaching.

Opportunities: community/national concern, finances, steering committee, teaching
Scripture: Luke 7:26; Acts 15:32 & 21:9-11; Romans 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:10,28; Eph. 4:11-13

Serving—To identify the unmet needs involved in a task related to God’s work, and to make use of available resources to meet those needs and help accomplish the desired results. (Note: the gift of serving may be confused with the gift of helps. See note on "helps" for clarification).

Opportunities: nursery, Sunday school, ushering, trustee
Scripture: Acts 6:1-7; Romans 12:7; Galatians 6:2,10; 2 Tim. 1:16-18; Titus 3:14

Teaching—Teaching is instructing members in the truths and doctrines of God’s Word for the purposes of building up, unifying, and maturing the body.

Opportunities: teaching, training, library
Scripture: Acts 18:24-28; Acts 20:20-21; Romans 12:7; 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11-13

Wisdom—Wisdom is the gift that discerns the work of the Holy Spirit in the body and applies His teachings and actions to the needs of the body.

Opportunities: prayer, counseling, finances
Scripture: Acts 6:3,10; 1 Cor. 2:1-13; 1 Cor. 12:28; James 1:5-6; 2 Peter 3:15-16

Worship—The gift to accurately discern the heart of God for a particular public worship service, to draw others into an intimate experience with God during the worship time and to allow the Holy Spirit to change directions and emphasis as the service progresses.

Opportunities: worship team, special music
Scripture: 1 Sam. 16:23; 1 Chronicles 9:33; 2 Chronicles 5:12-14

***

God has gifted you with an expression of His Holy Spirit to support His vision and mission of the church. It is a worldwide vision to reach all people with the gospel of Christ. God desires that you know how He has gifted you. This will lead you to where He would have you serve as part of His vision and mission for the church.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the two advents -- part 2

2011-12-09T10:48:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Corinthians 15:1-34

Whoever carefully considers Old Testament prophecies is struck by two contrasting (and seemingly contradictory) lines of prediction concerning the coming Messiah.

One body of prediction speaks of him as coming in weakness and humiliation:

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (from Isaiah 53)

The other line of prophecy foretells a splendid, conquering and unconquerable Sovereign, purging the earth with judgments, regathering dispersed Israel, restoring the throne of David to unparalleled splendor, and introducing a reign of profound peace and perfect righteousness:

Behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

The Old Testament prophets, as they looked ahead, were understandably puzzled by what the Spirit was telling them:
They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and his great glory afterward. They wondered when and to whom all this would happen. (1 Peter 1:11)

Today, as we stand between the first and second advents--between Christ's suffering and his great glory--these once-perplexing prophecies have come into focus. So it is now possible to compare the prophecies with their fulfillment. When we do, we are struck by how literally the prophecies were fulfilled. They weren't fulfilled figuratively or symbolically. They were fulfilled precisely and exactly:

In Bethlehem of Judea (Micah 5:2), a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) gave birth to a son (Genesis 3:15). Born into the nation Israel (Numbers 24:17), the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10), and the lineage of David (2 Samuel 7), he was rejected by his own (see Isaiah, Psalms, Zechariah). Numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12; Mark 15:27), he was--like a lamb led to slaughter (Exodus 12, Isaiah 53:7)--crucified (Zechariah 12:10, Psalm 22) for the sins of his people (Leviticus 16, Isaiah 53:5).

But--most remarkable of all--he didn't stay dead! Resurrected (Psalm 16:9-10; the book of Jonah), he ascended to the right hand of Power (Psalms 16:11; 68:18; Daniel 7:13-14; Acts 7:56).

Having observed that the prophecies of Messiah's earthly sufferings were fulfilled literally and precisely, we can only conclude that the predictions concerning Messiah's earthly glory will receive the same precise and literal fulfillment.

When Jesus taught two disciples on the road to Emmaus--the greatest Bible lesson ever heard--he began with these words:
"O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:25-26)

The Jews were slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken concerning the sufferings of their Messiah; we are slow of heart to believe all that they have spoken concerning His glory. Surely the greater reproach is ours, for it ought to be easier to believe that the Son of God would come "in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory" than that He would come as the babe of Bethlehem and the carpenter of Nazareth. Indeed, we believe the latter because it has happened, not because the prophets foretold it, and it is time we ceased to reproach the Jews for their unbelief. If it be asked how they could possibly be blinded to the evident meaning of so many and such unequivocal predictions, the answer is that they were blinded in exactly the same way that many Christians are blinded to the equally evident meaning of a far greater number of predictions of His earthly glory, namely, by the process of "spiritualizing" Scripture. In other words, the ancient scribes told the people that the prophecies of Messiah's sufferings were not to be interpreted literally, just as some modern scribes are telling the people that the prophecies of Messiah's earthly glory are not to be literally interpreted. --C. I. Scofield, "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth"

Jesus told his disciples that His coming again will be--like his departure--personal and bodily:
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." (John 14:1-3)

His personal and bodily return was re-emphasized in the very moment of Jesus' ascension:
While they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." (Acts 1:10-11)

This was re-emphasized again (!) in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17--
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

And again in Titus 2:13--
We wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And again in 1 John 3:2--
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

***

The first advent teaches us that the second advent will be exactly, literally, and precisely as these scriptures depict.

So let's not be slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the two advents -- part 1

2011-12-08T08:48:00.004-05:00

The Word for today:

1 Corinthians 14

1 Corinthians is absolutely loaded with spiritual answers. At the same time, it raises just as many spiritual questions!

Stand in the Rain has been waiting for 1 Corinthians, because it's the perfect place from which to launch a series of articles that will (we hope) sort out some of the Bible's paradoxes.

Ten years ago, I stumbled across a reprint of the original (1909) Scofield Reference Bible. Printed in the back was a lengthy article called "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth."

As I read it, so many of scripture's internal "contradictions" melted away. And so, leaning heavily on Scofield's original, we present this abridgement to you. We hope, pray, and expect that some concepts which once seemed logically irreconcilable will start to make seamless sense!

***

'Advent' is a pretty, Christmas-y word. That's because the baby in Bethlehem was the first advent, or appearing, of Jesus Christ.

His second advent is just as certain. We know how, where, and why he will return. The only question is when, which only the Father knows (1); scripture does not reveal that secret.

Both of Jesus' advents are clearly and vividly prophesied in scripture. The Bible student who can identify which is which--which prophecies refer to the first advent, which prophecies refer to the second advent--will avoid unnecessary confusion.

Moreover, when we understand the two advents, we clarify our understanding of the overall purpose, plan, heart, and character of God.

***

Whoever carefully considers Old Testament prophecies is struck by two contrasting (and seemingly contradictory) lines of prediction concerning the coming Messiah.

One body of prediction speaks of him as coming in weakness and humiliation:

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (from Isaiah 53)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;

"He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. (from Psalm 22)

And if one asks him, 'What are these wounds on your back?' he will say, 'The wounds I received in the house of my friends.'

"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me," declares the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 13:6-7)

The other line of prophecy foretells a splendid, conquering and unconquerable Sovereign, purging the earth with judgments, regathering dispersed Israel, restoring the throne of David to unparalleled splendor, and introducing a reign of profound peace and perfect righteousness:

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. (Isaiah 9:7)

And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. (Malachi 3:1-3)

For He is coming to judge the earth.

With righteousness He shall judge the world,

And the peoples with equity. (Psalms 98:9)

Behold, One like the Son of Man,

Coming with the clouds of heaven!

He came to the Ancient of Days,

And they brought Him near before Him.

Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,

That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion,

Which shall not pass away,

And His kingdom the one

Which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

***

The Old Testament prophets, as they looked ahead, were understandably puzzled by what the Spirit was telling them:

They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and his great glory afterward. They wondered when and to whom all this would happen.

Today, as we stand between the first and second advents--between Christ's suffering and his great glory--these once-perplexing prophecies have come into focus.

Tomorrow we will learn what Jesus' first appearance can teach us about his Second Coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) Matthew 24:36

You just met my Miracle.

2011-12-07T09:53:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:

1 Corinthians 13

"1 Corinthians 13," the teacher taught us, "is the definition of ideal love."

When I first encountered 1 Corinthians 13, they were pretty words from an abstract realm. There was nothing wrong with the words, but there was nothing real about them either.

Later on, those pretty words started to turn on me when another teacher made them into a checklist, sort of a law--The Ten Commandments of Love--that I could not live up to. Her uninspired teaching, mixed with my deeply ingrained perversity, had somehow managed to turn 1 Corinthians 13 into an indictment.

But I kept on; and the Holy Spirit stuck with me and taught me--just as he promised he would:

But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth. (1 John 2:20/GNT)

And then miracles started happening. I shall never forget, on or about the tenth time through, when the words of 1 Corinthians 13 were transformed.

Miracles, when you meet them, are never as showy and glitzy as we imagine they will be. We look for the grand and complex and God delivers the understated and enduring. We look for fireworks and crescendo and God brings a baby in a manger.

My miracle happened when the Spirit repetitively embedded three little words from 1 John (1) into the text of 1 Corinthians 13:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude…"God is love…"

It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth…"God is love…"

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…"God is love…"

Love never fails…"God is love…"

As word led to word, I had the most vivid impression that they were not forming ideas, but a Person.

***

I'd been led to believe that 1 Corinthians 13 was a definition of love, and that I wasn't fulfilling it. Then God taught me that Jesus is 1 Corinthians 13--and that He'd fulfilled it for me.

So as the Word turned into flesh, I was transformed, too. Nothing ever looked the same again:

As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

***

If 1 Corinthians 13, as you read it, is still about an idea called 'love;' or if it's still a checklist showing where your love falls short--then you're the reader I was before I met my Miracle.

So don't despair. Just slide over to the book of 1 John. Sign on with the Teacher that we're promised in 1 John 2:20. Then go back to 1 Corinthians 13 and this time, as you read, listen for the instructions He'll be repeating from 1 John 4:16.

See what I mean! You just met my Miracle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) 1 John 4:8, 16

the two resurrections

2011-12-06T10:28:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:

1 Corinthians 12

mark this: (1 Corinthians 15:13-14)

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

1 Corinthians is absolutely loaded with spiritual answers. At the same time, it raises just as many spiritual questions!

Stand in the Rain has been waiting for 1 Corinthians, because it's the perfect place from which to launch a series of articles that will (we hope) sort out some of the Bible's paradoxes.

Ten years ago, I stumbled across a reprint of the original (1909) Scofield Reference Bible. Printed in the back was a lengthy article called "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth."

***

The Bible teaches, clearly and emphatically, that all of the dead will be raised:

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (1 Corinthians 15:13-14)

But not all of the dead are raised at one time. A partial resurrection of believers ("saints") has already occurred:

The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. (Matthew 27:52-53)

Two widespread resurrections will occur in the future. They will happen at different times and they will consist of different people:

"Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29)

In the book of Revelation, the two resurrections are again mentioned together. Moreover, the interval of time between the two resurrections is given.

First, the resurrection of life:

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years…This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:4, 5b)

A thousand years later, the resurrection of judgment:

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended…Then I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:5a, 12-13)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: Resurrection concerns the bodies of the dead. At the time of physical death, the disembodied spirits of the dead are instantly in conscious bliss or woe. (See Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Luke 16:22-23.)

the five judgments

2011-12-05T12:24:00.002-05:00

The Word for today:

1 Corinthians 11:2-34

mark this: (John 19:17-18)

And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him.

and this: (2 Corinthians 5:10)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

and this: (Revelation 20:11)

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

1 Corinthians is absolutely loaded with spiritual answers. At the same time, it raises just as many spiritual questions!

Stand in the Rain has been waiting for 1 Corinthians, because it's the perfect place from which to launch a series of articles that will (we hope) sort out some of the Bible's paradoxes.

Ten years ago, I stumbled across a reprint of the original (1909) Scofield Reference Bible. Printed in the back was a lengthy article called "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth."

***

The widespread notion of a "general judgment," a day when everyone is to be judged, is not found in the Bible:

"It is a serious error to speak of the Judgment as being one great event, taking place at the end of the world, when all human beings, saints, saints, sinners, Jews and Gentiles, the living and the dead, shall stand up before the "Great White Throne' and there be judged. Nothing can be further from the teaching of the Scriptures (1)."

The Scriptures speak of five judgments. These five judgments differ in four general respects:

(1) the subjects of judgment

(2) the place of judgment

(3) the time of judgment

(4) the result of judgment

~~~ The Five Judgments ~~~

1. The sins of believers have been judged.

Time--A.D. 30

Place--the Cross of Jesus Christ

Result--death for Christ, justification for the believer

And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him. (John 19:17-18)

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24)

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God. (1 Peter 3:18)

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." (Galatians 3:13)

He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)

2. "Self" in the believer must be judged.

Time--anytime

Place--anywhere

Result-- correction, discipline

But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:31-32)

Endure it as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? (Hebrews 12:7)

(See also 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Samuel 7:14-15; 2 Samuel 12:13-14; 1 Timothy 1:20.)

3. The works of believers are to be judged.

Time--when Christ comes

Place--"in the air"

Result--"reward" or "loss" -- "but he himself shall be saved."

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:9-10; see also Romans 14:10)

Important! Note that the sins of believers (see Judgment #1, above) have already been judged at the cross of Jesus Christ! The question of the believer's salvation was forever settled there. Judgment #3 (the Judgment Seat of Christ) refers only to the works of the believer. (The believer's works are to be evaluated and, if deserving, rewarded.) The judgment of unbelievers--at the Great White Throne--is described in #5, below. No one who has trusted Christ for salvation will appear at the Great White Throne Judgment.

4. The nations are to be judged.

Time--the glorious appearing of Christ (see Matthew 25:31-32; 13:40-41)

Place--the valley of Jehoshaphat (see Joel 3:1, 2, 12-14)

Result--see Matthew 25:46. A believing remnant who have turned to Christ during the Great Tribulation will be saved "to eternal life;" unbelievers will be consigned "to eternal punishment."

5. The unbelieving dead are to be judged.

Time--after the Millennium (see Acts 17:31; Revelation 20:5)

Place--before the Great White Throne (see Revelation 20:11)

Result-- No one is saved at this judgment.

Only unbelievers will appear at the Great White Throne, where they are judged according to their works. No one is saved at this judgment, for no one is saved by works:We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
No believer will appear at the Great White Throne Judgment! Their salvation was already secured at the cross (see Judgment #1) where their sins were judged. Their rewards were determined at the Judgment Seat of Christ (see Judgment #3) where their works were judged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost

salvation and rewards

2011-12-04T06:58:00.003-05:00

The Word for today:

1 Corinthians 10:1-11:1

mark this: 1 Corinthians 3:11-15

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

1 Corinthians is absolutely loaded with spiritual answers. At the same time, it raises just as many spiritual questions!

Stand in the Rain has been waiting for 1 Corinthians, because it's the perfect place from which to launch a series of articles that will (we hope) sort out some of the Bible's paradoxes.

Ten years ago, I stumbled across a reprint of the original (1909) Scofield Reference Bible. Printed in the back was a lengthy article called "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth."

***

The New Testament contains a doctrine of salvation for the lost, and a doctrine of rewards for the faithful services of the saved. It is critically important for the Bible student to comprehend the distinction between these doctrines. So carefully note the following contrasts:

1. Salvation is a free gift…

Jesus answered, "If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would ask Him, and He would give you living water." (John 4:10)

Come, everyone who is thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you without money,

come, buy, and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost! (Isaiah 55:1)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

It is, remember, by grace and not by achievement that you are saved. It was nothing you could or did achieve - it was God's gift to you. No one can pride himself upon earning the love of God. (Ephesians 2:8-9/Phillips)

But rewards are earned by works

And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. (Matthew 10:42)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

In the future, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. (Revelation 22:12)

'Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.' (Luke 19:17)

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

2. Salvation is a present possession…

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. (John 3:36)

I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)

Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. (2 Timothy 1:9)

And He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. (Luke 7:50)

He saved us-- not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:5)

And this is the testimony: that God has given to us everlasting life, and this life is in His Son. (1 John 5:11)

But rewards are a future attainment

For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. (Matthew 16:27)

You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. (Luke 14:14)

And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. (Revelation 22:12)

And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory. (1 Peter 5:4)

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. (2 Timothy 4:8)

After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. (Matthew 25:19)

***

So, let's review these essential concepts:

1. Salvation is a free gift…

but rewards are earned by works.

2. Salvation is a present possession…

but rewards are a future attainment.

With these principles in mind, passages that once might have baffled us will now make perfect sense.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the believer's two natures -- part 2

2011-12-03T10:47:00.000-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Corinthians 8, 9

mark this: 1 Corinthians 2:14

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

and this: John 3:3

I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

and this: 2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Yesterday, we read the bad news--all about the old nature, which every person is born with. It wasn't pretty.

But today we'll be reading good news--all about the new nature, which every believer is re-born with.

***

While unbelievers are born once, believers are born twice. Jesus told Nicodemus--a moral, religious man-- that "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

The believer, while still having the unchanged and unchangeable old nature, has received a new nature:

a new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:24)

This rebirth is a brand-new creation, not just a washed and polished version of the old:

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan – this rebirth comes from God.

(John 1:12-13/NLT)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The new man is inseverably linked with Christ:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4)

For to me, to live is Christ. (Philippians 1:21)

He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4)

And this is the record: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12)

***

But the new, divine nature, which is Christ's own, coexists with the old nature:

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. (Romans 7:18a)

It is not a peaceful co-existence:

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. (Romans 7:18b, 21)

Between the two natures there is conflict. It is painful even to read the battle between the two "I's"--the old Saul of Tarsus and the new Paul--in Romans 7:14-25. This experience discourages and perplexes new believers, who are so dismayed to find the old nature--with its old habits and desires--reasserting itself, that they may begin to doubt their acceptance with God.

***

The presence of the old nature, however, is not an excuse for "living down" to it. We are taught that the old self is dead--"crucified with Christ" and we are called upon to make sure it stays that way!

The power that enables us to mortify ("make dead") our old nature is that of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in every believer:

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. (Galatians 5:16-17)

By the Spirit put to death your sinful actions. (Romans 8:13/GNT)

So instead of resisting the misdeeds of the old nature by force of will, or by good resolutions, turn the conflict over to the indwelling Spirit of God, just as Paul did somewhere between Romans 7 and Romans 8:

Romans 7 is a record of the conflict of the regenerate man with his old self, and is, therefore, intensely personal. "I would," "I do not," "I would not," "I do," is the sad confession of defeat which finds an echo in so many Christian hearts. In the eighth chapter the conflict still goes on, but how blessedly impersonal! There is no agony, for Paul is out of it; the conflict is now between "flesh"--Saul of Tarsus--and the Holy Spirit. Paul is at peace and victorious.
--from "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth," by C. I. Scofield, 1896

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the believer's two natures -- part 1

2011-12-02T11:50:00.001-05:00

The Word for today:

1 Corinthians 7

mark this: 1 Corinthians 2:14

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

and this: John 3:3
I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

1 Corinthians is absolutely loaded with spiritual answers. At the same time, it raises just as many spiritual questions!

Stand in the Rain has been waiting for 1 Corinthians, because it's the perfect place from which to launch a series of articles that will (we hope) sort out some of the Bible's paradoxes.

Ten years ago, I stumbled across a reprint of the original (1909) Scofield Reference Bible. Printed in the back was a lengthy article called "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth."

***

Q. Why do some people "get it" and some don't?

A. Here's why:

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Q. What does "natural man" mean?

A. It means he was naturally born. That, of course, would include every person on the face of the earth.

Q. So if everyone is naturally born, how can anyone understand "the things of God."

A. Some are also supernaturally born.

Q. Say what?

A. I'll let Jesus explain it:

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." (John 3:3, 5-6)

Q. So those who can "see" the kingdom of God are born twice--"of water and the Spirit?"

A. Right. They are born naturally and supernaturally.

Q. So if I'm born again, I'm supernatural?

A. Well, I wouldn't go that far. But you are super-natured!

***

We hear the term "born again" a lot, but what does it mean? The full extent of its meaning is best understood by contrasting the born again believer with the person who is not born again…

The Believer's Two Natures

The Scriptures teach that every believer is the possessor of two natures.

One nature, received by natural birth, is wholly and hopelessly bad.

A second, new nature (received through the new birth) is the nature of God Himself, and therefore wholly good.

Here's what God thinks of the old ("Adamic") nature:
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalms 51:5)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. (Romans 3:10-12)

God does not say that none are refined, or sweet tempered, or generous, or charitable, or religious. But he does say that none are righteous; none understand or seek after God. As genial and moral as many unbelievers are, they "make God a liar" every day by rejecting His Word and His Son:

Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. (1 John 5:10)

An "unregenerate" person (not born again) may be amiable, generous, talented, and religious, but he can neither obey God, nor please God, nor understand God. He just doesn't--he can't--'get it:'

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7-8)

Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. (Ephesians 2:3)

***

The believer, meanwhile, while still having the unchanged and unchangeable old nature, has received a new nature:

a new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:24)

Tomorrow, we'll find out more about the new super-natured self.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"standing" and "state" -- part 2

2011-12-01T10:00:00.003-05:00

The Word for today:
1 Corinthians 5, 6

1 Corinthians is absolutely loaded with spiritual answers. At the same time, it raises just as many spiritual questions!

Stand in the Rain has been waiting for 1 Corinthians, because it's the perfect place from which to launch a series of articles that will (we hope) sort out some of the Bible's paradoxes.

Ten years ago, I stumbled across a reprint of the original (1909) Scofield Reference Bible. (When the revised version of 1917 became the standard Scofield, the 1909 version was largely forgotten.) Printed in the back was a lengthy article called "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth."

As I read it, so many of scripture's internal "contradictions" melted away. And so, leaning heavily on Scofield's original, we present this abridgement to you. We hope, pray, and expect that some concepts which once seemed logically irreconcilable will start to make seamless sense!

***

Yesterday, we looked closely at a believer's "standing:"

At the moment (s)he receives Christ by faith, the believer becomes a son of God, a joint-heir with Christ, a king and priest, the owner of an incorruptible, unfading inheritance. We have peace with God, eternal life, and we are accepted to the full measure of Christ's own acceptance. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, clothed in the righteousness of God, raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenlies. That's the position we find ourselves in!

Our standing is the result of the work of Christ, and is perfect and complete from the moment we first believe. Nothing in the believer's subsequent life adds anything to his standing. Faith alone confers standing in God's sight, and before Him the weakest and most fallible believer has precisely the same standing as the most illustrious saint.

Today, we focus on the believer's current "state:"

What our actual state may be is quite another matter; certainly it is far, far below our exalted standing in the sight of God. It is not all at once that our conduct equals our standing. The following passages will indicate the way these two things are constantly contrasted throughout scripture:

To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus. (1 Corinthians 1:2)
My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. (1 Corinthians 1:11)

You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11)
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? (1 Corinthians 6:15a)

Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? (1 Corinthians 6:15b)

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. (Matthew 16:17)

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23)

***

God first gives the highest possible standing and then exhorts the believer to maintain a state in accordance with his standing. The lowly are lifted up and set on high:

Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (Romans 6:6)
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules. (Colossians 2:20)

You are the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14)

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6)
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)

For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. (Ephesians 5:8a)
Walk as children of light. (Ephesians 5:8b)

We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected. (Philippians 3:12)

Positionally, the believer is perfected forever (Hebrews 10:14), but looking within, at his state, we must say "not that I have already attained, or am already perfected". (Philippians 3:12)

The work of God on the believer's behalf--the application of His word to the believer's walk (1); the disciplinary chastisement at His hand (2); the ministry of the Spirit (3); the difficulties and trials along the way (4); and the final transformation when He shall appear (5)--are simply intended to bring the believer's character into conformity with the position which is his at the moment of conversion.

A king might have been a little boy when he assumed the throne. He might not have acted very kingly then, but that didn't mean he was any less a king. A king is born a king.

In the case of every true son of the King of kings, this growth into kingliness is assured. In the end, standing and state, character and position, will be equal. But the position is not the reward for perfected character. The character develops from the position.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26; (2) Hebrews 12:10; 1 Chronicles 11:32; (3) Ephesians 4:11-12; (4) 1 Peter 4:12-14; (5) 1 John 3:2