Armor Bearing

I Kings 20:11 "One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off."

As I push through everything in my "noble" attempt to get to the truth, I need to remember the above verse. It's easy to dismiss prior generations and say that we alone have a stranglehold on the biblical truth, the way of Jesus - that we alone know what the Kingdom really looks like. We need to remember in our search for the truth that there are people taking off the armor who have already spent a lifetime fighting the good fight, living in the Way.

Don't get me wrong. I want the truth even if it means pushing aside the empty ceremonial water jars for the new wine. I don't want, out of respect for my elders, to ever tolerate traditions and methods that are not of the truth. If all they have to offer me is a lifetime of no wine, then I will dismiss it.

But there are those before me who have lived out lives in the new wine. Maybe not necessarily in the jars that I would choose (music, church, methods) but they lifted high the Cross and they sought the Truth. They loved God with all of their heart and their neighbor as themselves.

These are the ones I better be careful not to dismiss too easily, because in many ways I am just putting on my armor. They were able to take it off and know that they had finished well. Only a fool would make a claim before the battle that they knew the better way.

The reason I write this is because I am studying John, and currently as I preach through chapter 2 I see Jesus eradicate the uselessness of the old ceremonial water jars by filling them with the new wine. As I read this, my first thoughts were: "This is what I'm going to do! I will push aside the old, useless ways and be filled with the new wine!" Then, as I prepared for another Bible study, I read I Kings 20 and God set me straight. So - I'm just letting you know that I've been humbled and will not look so condescendingly upon the saints of the past as I pursue the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The Way of God

Hebrews 8:7 -
"For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said . . . . . I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts."

There is a problem with discipleship, and the expectations of the disciples of Christ, and it is that people, for some reason, aren't actually expected to live out the "way" of God. They're expected to be in Him and be saved by Him, but the Way of God has been cast aside as not relevant anymore, as if the death of Christ put it to death.

Christ did not put to death the perfect Law of God, He put to death the stranglehold that this law had on us, causing frustration and death. He put to death the Way of Man that had been superimposed over the Way of God. He put to death death itself, the condemnation of our inability to keep His law. But He did not put to death God's perfection and His holiness.

According to Hebrews, God did not find fault with His Law, He found fault with the people. If the Law was flawed and ultimately irrelevant, then why would His ultimate goal be to write it upon our hearts and minds?

Why is this important to me? Because I think that we are dismissing the Way of God too easily. Jesus calls Himself "the Way" and I believe as self-proclaimed disciples, we are not truly following His way. We are creating our own ways and then claiming it to be His way.

There is a demand upon someone who claims to be a disciple - it's to follow in the way of his master. You can't cast aside His way and claim to be in the Way. I was reading in a book (Mere Discipleship) this past week that somehow, somewhere in the development of Christian thought, moral action was replaced by moral thought. Almost to the point where you could justify DOING things by saying that they had no hold on you. Accumulating wealth, for example. As long as it didn't have a grip on you, you could amass "stuff" for yourself.

I believe that the heart and mind must be changed - as well as the actions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's still a sin if I do it, isn't it?

I believe that there is a Way that is right, and it's more than just a thought of the the heart. It's DOING what your Master says is His way. True discipleship is walking in His steps, adhering to His teaching, and doing what He said to do.

This Way has not been cast aside by the Cross.

sunday 10.17.10

we here at cbc are going to try a little experiment. we are going to post an outline of points from tom's sunday sermons for further discussion throughout the week. here is the first installment in our little experiment.

I. opening passage of scripture: john 1:1 - 18
- "the Word became flesh

II. intercession - the highest calling a christian can have
1. your vision must change
- not sympathy or empathy...we are called to action
- your vision of Jesus must change
- your vision of other people must change

2. your methods must change (unlearn the "egyptian way")
- exodus 2:11
- moses kills the egyptian in order to avenge the mistreatment of a hebrew slave. this is not the way of God

3. enter into their life
- Jesus enters in and becomes one of us
- he voluntarily takes our form because he loves us
- not an easy task. people come messy and broken.

4. expect something to happen!
- we give up too quickly on people

5. pray like crazy
- ezekiel 37 - God brings that which was dead to life (dry bones)

we are called to a live of service and love for the people around us. how can we take this call seriously in our daily life?

feel free to comment with thoughts, opinions, objections, questions, etc.

Victory by Diversion

Mark 9:29 "This kind can come out only by prayer."

I do not want victory by diversion. I do not want to have thoughts in my head that are only cast aside during momentary times of prayer and Bible study and general busyness.

Upon coming down the Mt. of Transfiguration, Jesus confronts a demon-possessed boy and frees him, telling the demon to "come out of him and never enter him again."

Can there truly be an exiting in this life? Or is every victory simply a temporary stay of execution - the inevitable execution of the sin that is working through your mind?

I find that many times in my devotions I enter with thoughts raging through my brain, then I enter into times of prayer and study that often become so focused on God and His Word that I feel free. However, upon exiting this time, the thoughts, and worse - how to put these thoughts into action - return.

Jesus says that "This kind can come out only by prayer" and that IT is to "never enter" again. There is an underlying assumption of an eternal exiting. In this life. Only by prayer.

I fear that I give up too easily and that I lack the faith to move this mountain.

Changed by a Third Grader

I got a bunch of birthday cards today from the kids at elementary chapel. I do this chapel each Wednesday - one of the highlights of my week. Their innocence and pure love for God reminds me of what it's really all about.

Anyway - I'm sitting at my desk reading each one and this particular prayer from a 3rd grader's card struck me:

"Thank you Lord for Mr. D. I pray that he will continue to serve you with all his heart. Amen."

It seems so simple but it slayed me on the spot. I know my heart can drift, and I forget that I need to be fully there because these kids need me to be fully there. It refocused me and brought me to a place where I needed to be.

They see me as serving Him with all my heart. I need to be serving Him with all my heart. "From the lips of children . . . . you silence the foe and the avenger." (Psalm 8).

Satan was silenced this morning - in my heart - as I read a card from an 8 year-old boy. That's a good day.