Cleft In The Rock - Update

In order to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the community where I've been sent (Gillette, Wyoming), current posts can be found at www.gospeltogillette.org.

Thank you for visiting and may God bless you and yours!
- TH

Wisdom And Obedience Are Inseparable

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.” - Psalm 111:10

Biblical wisdom is not a function of one’s intellect or brilliance. Nor is Biblical wisdom founded in man’s ability to interpret CREATION… rather, it is founded in man’s recognition and reverence for his CREATOR.

In Psalm 111:10, we read that reverent, Godly fear is the beginning of wisdom. What this implies is that the attitude of one’s heart toward God is the precursor to the shaping of sound views, doctrines, and judgments.

Now, with that said… what are the hallmarks of the Biblically wise? Well, look at the assertion of Verse 10:

“A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.”

If we are truly wise, what will we do? We will DO THE COMMANDS of He who created us. Biblical wisdom begins with the recognition of our frailty and need for Christ, and culminates in our EMULATION OF HIS HOLY CHARACTER. True wisdom is when feeble, sinful people begin to emulate the attributes of a perfect and Holy God.

So if Biblical wisdom entails being conformed to Christ, then it is worth asking: to what degree does your life reflect your King? The answer to that question is directly proportional to how wise you really are.

The Problem of Sight Without Focus

One of the most frequent metaphors in Scripture is the contrast of mankind’s physical vision with the spiritual vision perceived by a regenerated heart.

When we sing the words “I once was blind, but now I see” (from the familiar hymn “Amazing Grace”) the idea is that, once man’s heart has been changed, the blinders come off and he is able to perceive spiritual matters that had been previously obscured.

But, with that said... the fact that a saved man is enabled to spiritually “see” is a DIFFERENT MATTER than what he, of his own volition, will choose to focus his eyes upon.

Let me explain by way of an analogy.

Let’s say there is a man who has the greatest PHYSICAL eyesight in all the world, but for some reason he chooses to always focus his eyes on a point two inches in front of his nose. In this case, what good does the man’s amazing eyesight accomplish? How helpful is this otherwise fantastic advantage?

Well, in that example, the gift of excellent physical vision is of no real value. By focusing only two inches in front of us nose, the man would be functionally blind… inclined to stumble, to run into things, and unable to effectively navigate the world around him. In other words, his great vision would be of little help to him because of what he chose to FOCUS UPON.

This same issue of focus, if you extrapolate it spiritually, is the problem for a great many Christians.

You and I have been granted the ability to see and discern a great many spiritual matters... but we often push these things to the periphery, focusing instead on matters of this world and the distractions therein. We are not unlike the man whose focus is two inches in front of his nose, oblivious to the larger reality that surrounds him.

But that's not what we're called to!

The purpose of God-given sight is to perceive the world around us. And, just as a man with perfect eyesight must train and broaden his gaze in order to benefit from it, we as Christians must spiritually do the same.

'Crucify Him': Would WE Demand Something Different?

“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them. "Crucify him!" they shouted. "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" – Mark 15:12-14

“Crucify Him,” is what the crowds demanded of Pontius Pilate. Given their cultural history, given their need for Him, how could they demand this? How could they so thoroughly reject the Messiah they had anticipated for thousands of years when He was right in their midst?

Jesus Christ may have been a Savior, but He was not the sort of Savior the people wanted. For these were not a people distraught or concerned about their sinfulness, but a people consumed by their worldly desires and the lusts of the flesh. The crowd surely wanted a King… but the King they wanted was one who would stomp and destroy their evil Roman oppressors, a King who would eliminate Rome and usher in the days of milk and honey.

So when the Lamb of God, this man of sorrows acquainted with grief, when HE came on the scene, their hardened hearts would not recognize Him for who He was… because He did not resemble what they wanted Him to be!

Would it be any different in our day?

It is necessary to ask ourselves what kind of Savior we are seeking. The Lord of our salvation must be a reflection of the Christ that we find in Scripture, and NOT the Christ we've fashioned from our sinful desires.

Reconciliation

“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 5:18

In a general sense, reconciliation is when two parties who have been separated are brought back together. But the Scriptural definition of this word is much more involved.

Scripturally, reconciliation is when fallen men who’ve been alienated from a Holy God (on the basis of their sinfulness) are returned to perfect fellowship with their Creator. And, Scripturally, this is a unilateral process. As 2nd Corinthians makes clear, God reconciles us to Himself.

The problem is that we regularly use phraseology that emphasizes the exact opposite. We’ve adopted a theology that stresses our own work of reconciliation, and not His.

“Deciding for Christ,” “Accepting Jesus,” and “Making Him our Lord” are terms that suggest the final reconciliation between God and man emanates from OUR sovereign decision. It is as if God has breathlessly endeavored to “make His best case”, presented it at our feet, and we deign to reward it with our faith. This is a mindset that is both denigrating to God and mistakenly sees reconciliation as hinging on our willingness to be reconciled to begin with.

The truth is that unregenerate man is not running TO God, he is running AWAY from God. Left to our natural state, we are lovers of evil, desiring nothing that Christ would offer. Reconciliation that depends on the goodwill of those who are dead in their sins (Eph 2:1) is reconciliation that will not happen.

And yet, we HAVE been reconciled, in spite of our natural enmity with God (Rom 8:7). But how?

In His love, grace, and wisdom, God has drawn His children to Himself. Our hearts of stone have been turned to hearts of flesh (Eze 11:19), and we’ve been both enabled and persuaded to embrace Christ. A complete propitiation for that which separated us (sin) has been paid… returning us into fellowship with our Maker through faith in His Son.

It is that concept, of a reconciliation that emanates from God and not from us, that is the unequivocal teaching of Scripture.

The Gospel and The End Times

Let me preface this post:

Christ IS coming back, and we ARE to be watchful for His return. Scripture tells us a great many things about the end times, and we should commit what it tells us to both prayer and study.

With that said, I would rather encounter a church, minister, or congregant who spends more time immersed in their study of the Gospel than of the last days.

For various reasons, modern evangelicalism has degraded the Gospel to “entry level Christianity,” as if the atoning work of Jesus Christ can be quickly mastered. People gain a cursory understanding of the cross, and proceed to “graduate” to prophecies, mysteries, and the like. Meanwhile, any understanding of their own redemption stagnates (presuming they understood it in the first place).The cross, the resurrection, and one's justification are placed on a shelf in order to pursue that which is, although fascinating, far less essential for faithful living.

Now, I say this carefully... because I have a great many Christian brothers and sisters who might feel singled out by these words. And to them, I would say, it is not your love of God that I’m addressing. Rather, it is the skewed emphasis in your study.

If someone can speak breathlessly about the millennium and of prophecies in Daniel and Revelation, then I would say: excellent! May God bless you in your desire to understand and articulate these things. But if that same person shows markedly less enthusiasm for the Gospel, then I have a concern. Soteriology (doctrines pertaining to salvation) and eschatology (doctrines pertaining to the end) are not of equal importance. I can be dead wrong about the details of Christ’s return and still be saved, but if I do not know the Gospel, then I am lost.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the focal point of Scripture. It should therefore be the focal point of our teaching and evangelism. Remember... this Gospel is called the very power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16), and a spiritually healthy Christian will be continually renewed in its study.

What Makes Amazing Grace So Amazing?

If someone were to ask you to prove God’s grace and mercy, you might answer with two words: Genesis 4. When mankind fell in Genesis 3, God would have been perfectly just to have closed the book on humanity.

And yet, He did not.

And yet, He ordered all of redemptive history around the death of His Son.

You see, we do not form a symbiotic relationship with God, wherein He is inclined to keep us around because He benefits from our presence. There is no “man shaped void" in God that necessitates our existence. So when our federal head (Adam) sinned, was God under any obligation to forgive? Absolutely not.

Now, this may seem intuitive, but let me explain further.

In a human context, the type of grace we're talking about is completely foreign. Much of the forgiveness we see in our world comes because it is, to some extent, owed. If a father forgives a child, it may indeed flow from his love, but also from his responsibility. We would view a father who was unwilling to forgive a child’s minor transgression as being callous, because we see forgiveness as a necessary component of the father/son relationship.

However, the forgiveness offered through Christ is wholly different.

When creation sins against the Creator, it is in no way incumbent upon the Creator to remediate the situation. And yet, we have those two amazing words: Genesis 4. Immediately after Adam sinned, God announced the coming Christ (Genesis 3:15). He did not wait for man to bridge the gap (as man could not) but decreed that He would do so Himself.

What grace this is! What undeserved mercy! And for that matter, what love… because to redeem us, the wrath of God would have to be spent upon His only Son. The love of God is sealed by the blood of the Lamb; blood that we do not merit, but which was nevertheless shed on our behalf.

Praise God for His undeserved mercy and grace. May we never take it for granted!

The Two Attacks On The Christian Worldview

There are two primary ways by which the Christian worldview is attacked. The first comes from those who say our beliefs are unacceptable, and contend against them with great vigor.

But it is the second attack that is far more sinister, coming from those who smilingly equate their false worldview with our own.

As Christians, we are accustomed to our enemies barreling through the front door. The Church has long endured persecution, and Scripture tells us that those who hate Christ will demonstratively hate those who proclaim Him. And this is certainly the case... we are a people whose views are regularly belittled, castigated, and despised.

However, our focus on this frontal assault has left us blind to the Devil’s success in flanking us.

As each generation passes, we find our worldview accommodating and being accommodated by those committed to its distortion. How shrewd our opponent is! To wit: do you think denominations that deny Scripture, Christ’s deity, or the Trinity are our friends or our antagonists? Do you think those with "new" and "progressive" theologies are all well-intentioned colleagues in the faith, or wolves that Scripture told us to expect? Do you think ministers that emphasize prosperity over discipleship and sacrifice are going to remain in the foxhole when persecution hits?

The Christian worldview IS under assault from a godless culture, an elitist academia, and other sources. But the proverbial knife in the ribs doesn’t come from someone at a hundred paces... it comes from someone at two. The "friend" who infuses Christianity with things Christianity does not represent can be as great a danger, if not greater, than he who flatly disputes us.

Now, I say all this because my growing sense is that evangelicals are being “rope-a-doped.”

With his right hand, Satan visibly contends against our worldview, but with the left he places his servants and doctrines under its banner. But we don’t see this! We allow our favorite news programs to galvanize us into battle against Darwinians and mustache-twirling politicians… but have lessened discernment or outrage when nice young men with heretical tracts come bicycling to our doors. We can raise our voices against men like Al Gore and Richard Dawkins, and at the same time turn a blind eye to universalists, Christ-deniers, and heretics of all stripes. In other words, we think ourselves virtuous... and yet continue to make de facto accords with Belial.

Formal opposition is recognized through its clenched fist and angry posture. But an open embrace can prove just as deadly. Let Scripture be our means for discerning the motivations of each.

Prayer And The Glory of God

God has never taken an action that was not centered around His own glory. How important it is to understand this, and even more so when we pray.

When we offer God our prayers and petitions, we do so with a lot of different motivations. Some of our prayers are reasonably selfless, others are ignoble, and most are a mix of the two. In His love and mercy, God is patient when we approach Him… His Spirit interceding for us in those times when we don’t even know how to pray.

And yet, when the finger of God is lifted in response to prayer, it is lifted ONLY in accordance with those prayers that will ultimately bring Him glory. He will not, for example, satisfy our desire for material goods for the sole reason of gratifying man. This is a King we serve, not a Genie. However, if being materially blessed generates our thanksgiving, then this is one way He is glorified. In His wisdom, God can ALSO direct our prayers unto outcomes that exceed our original intent. But one thing He does not do is ordain responses to prayers that will in any way diminish His namesake.

If we truly believe that man’s whole duty is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, then our prayers need to reflect this. We should consider our petitions not only in light of our needs, but of His eminence. Doing so will help us avoid praying for that which is of no eternal merit, and will refine our objectives for what it is that we DO pray for.

Again, the finger of God moves only in that which promotes the glory of God. There is no action he partakes in that will lessen His majesty, nor any action that is neutral to His majesty. So when praying, it is wise to consider this thought:

“How will the outcome of what I’m praying FOR bring glory to the One I’m praying TO?”

The Difference Between Faith and Belief

You and I are NOT saved by the belief that Jesus Christ exists, nor that He died on a cross and rose again on the third day. This is because having an intellectual belief and having a saving faith are not the same thing.

I have a close relative who, if asked, would testify to his belief in Jesus Christ. But that belief does not translate into a faith in Christ’s divinity, mediation, or gift of salvation. This person, someone I care about deeply, believes in Jesus’s historicity, and in much of the Gospel narrative… but the intellectual ascent he gives to these things has not yet provoked a response of the heart.

The great shame is that this person doesn’t see a need for the latter. To Him, the simple belief in Christ's existence is sufficient. And as a result, there is no place in his life for repentance, sanctification, or evangelism.

When Christ said that man must “repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15) this belief was not the mere acknowledgment in the Gospel’s merit. Even the demons believe this much. Rather, the belief Christ spoke of is belief that is infused with one’s dependence, one’s trust, and one’s confidence. These are marks of true faith, emanating from a heart that has been enabled and persuaded by the Spirit.

Again, we play with fire when we equivocate intellectual belief with saving faith. The difference between the two may be about as WIDE as hell is DEEP. Semantics are no mere child’s toy when dealing with matters of eternity! For that matter, the invocation of Jesus as one’s “savior” requires similar precision. Believing in Jesus as one’s Savior does one no good if the Jesus being spoken of is not the Jesus of Scripture. Many religions cite “belief,” many cite “Jesus,” but only Biblical Christianity offers them in a divinely inspired and informed context.

There will be times, especially when we evangelize, that someone will respond by saying that they already “believe in Jesus.” While welcoming this news, we should remember that there are two operative words in this statement, and a wrong understanding of either can be disastrous.

The Sovereignty of God, Or, 'Who's In Charge?'

Here's a question for you:

Where in Scripture, and specifically what verse, do we FIRST learn something about God’s nature?

That’s right, Genesis 1:1.

“In the beginning,” Genesis 1:1 says, “God created the Heavens and the Earth.”

Now this Verse contains a wealth of theology, and is frequently used to state the origins of creation. But I would submit that the most important thing that this Verse teaches is not so much about creation, but about the Creator.

The first five words, “In the beginning, God created,” tell us that God is SEPARATE from His creation. Indeed, the God who predated the "beginning" itself can in no way be reliant upon that which He has made. This means that God does not require His creation’s assent or approval in order for Him to still be God.

The word we use to describe this, the word we use to describe a God who is separate from, who is independent of, and who is in control over all of the cosmos is the word “sovereign.”

Now, if I were to walk up to a professing believer from virtually any denomination, and ask "Is God in charge of what He's made," the answer will almost uniformly come back "Yes!". People will typically affirm God's sovereignty, because it seems to go hand-in-hand with calling Him "God" in the first place.

And yet, if I were to drill down into most people's thinking, their affirmation of His sovereignty would go out the window the moment I brought up His role in salvation, in the affairs of man, or in contrast with our "freedom of choice." People might be willing to acknowledge God's initial sovereignty over the world... but as something He has since shed, a quality placed upon the shelf the moment creation was complete.

There is obviously a lot of theology involved here. But for the moment, I would simply ask you to consider whether God remains in charge of every single facet of what He has made... and whether you'd have to hedge that statement if pushed. This issue is at the heart of a right understanding of Scripture.

The Gospel and The Darkness

Our church sits on a hill straddling the scenic high plains of Northeast Wyoming. We live in a windswept and isolated community, far from anywhere... a place that one would think would make it easier to discern God's voice.

That would be nice.

And yet, it isn't the case.

In reality, spiritual shadows cover our small town. Like many communities, ours is immersed within the fog of a godless worldview, a worldview with no real interest in Jesus Christ… at least not in His role as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. This faulty worldview emphasizes the sovereignty of man above and beyond the sovereignty of God, and clouds the minds of professing believers and pagans alike.

Now, are there churches in our community that are obliged to fight this? Of course, and some do. But others have fallen in love with the secular world and act accordingly. They've reasoned that darkness and light can be melded into a satisfactory, and salvific, hue of gray-- so that is what they seek. These churches show no acknowledgment that mankind's worldview is inherently faulty and leads to death. Rather, they suggest that people can exist as carnal Christians... dancing in rhythm to the devil's tune.

Now, this doesn't happen in a vacuum. Rather, the trajectory of these churches is simply the reflection of the stony hearts of their membership. Many folks simply don't want God, or, at least, they don’t want the God they find in Scripture.

“But,” you might ask, “how can you SAY that? Isn't that an overstatement?”

Well, no, it’s the only rational conclusion one can make when looking at how people live. The great multitude worships God as nothing more than a good-luck charm on the dashboard of their lives, with testimonies that bare witness to their choice.

In our otherwise enjoyable Wyoming community, I've found that folks hold a worldview that has the trappings of Christianity but little of the substance. We are proud Americans, believers in freedom, occasionally referencing the God who granted it. Most of our community would profess to be saved through Christ. And yet, there's little apparent desire for what He offers. We have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. This isn’t a purely theological statement., but an empirical one.

So what must we do differently? If the presumption is that there’s something wrong (and there is), then what must churches and believers DO about it?

Well, the answer, in part, is that churches must regain a laser-like focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation. Let me repeat: THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION. And if the Gospel has the power to save, it also is the means by which we can be renewed. The church does not need to immerse itself in a tilt-a-whirl of programs and methodologies, it needs to immerse itself in the Gospel. Believers do not need watered-down platitudes, they need the truth. The renewal and revival we seek will only come from the unabashed preaching, prayer, and conviction that is manifest in God’s own Word, or it will not come at all.

There is much more that could be said here, but let me leave you with this final thought.

As you know, churches cannot convert man’s hearts of our own accord, that is the work of God. But we can (and are expected to) model a biblical worldview.

When we do so... when we truly model our faith and reflect the holiness of God himself, we become beacons of light that are able to penetrate even the most oppressive of darkness.

And that is precisely the mandate that we've been given.

The Goodness of God

When we say that “God is good,” this is not a verdict we render on the basis of what He DOES (although we could) but rather on the basis of who He IS.

Or, to put it another way, goodness is not a moral threshold that God happens to hold to… but it is an essential characteristic of His very nature. And this means that when we say "God is good" we are making a far different statement than we sometimes think we are.

Let me explain by way of analogy. If a man goes down the street and comes across an old lady who has fallen, and he helps her up, we might then say that this man has done a “good deed.”

In fact, people watching this take place might be inclined to say “what a good man he is.” What they would be doing is interpreting the man’s actions through their lens of right and wrong, and then labeling him accordingly. The problem is that their judgment does not speak to the man’s real nature, but instead to their perceptions of His nature.

In other words, in order for someone to be called “good” in our culture, we do not require there to be UNITY between a person’s nature and a person’s actions. And as a result, the concept we have for “goodness” is a moving target. "Goodness" itself is reduced to a vague, moral sounding label… a descriptive term with no lasting value, because that which society calls “good” one day, it might well call “bad” the next.

On the other hand, when we affirm that “GOD IS GOOD,” we are saying something completely different.

Again, goodness is not a label to describe what God does, but it is an attribute defining who He is. God’s being and God’s actions are always unified; there is never a gap between His decisions and His identity. So God’s goodness, then, is not just a descriptive term… but instead speaks to what we call the ontology (or the very nature) of God himself.

What confidence it should give us that God's goodness is inherent to who He is, and will not change!

The Most Dangerous Gap

The most dangerous gap in Christianity exists between what we BELIEVE to be true, and our RESPONSE to that truthfulness.

With that said, every Christian's testimony includes such a gap. Even the Apostle Paul himself admitted a disparity between what he knew to be right, and that which he often chose (Romans 7:14-21). We are fallen people living in a fallen world, and our flesh is in constant rebellion. And yet, this is not an acceptable or permanent condition.

Christians are called to be holy as Christ is holy. We are called to make every thought captive to Him. We are called to close the gap between who we presently are and who we’ve been called to be. But is this our focus? Do we understand that the belief in a certain thing mandates a certain response?

There is a term called “cognitive dissonance” that refers to a person's belief in two contradictory things at the same time. Those with cognitive dissonance will typically rationalize the disparity between their views, even if it involves casting logic and truth to the wind. Others are comfortable living perpetually with cognitive dissonance, something made easier in a post-modern world.

In Christian circles, I’ve found cognitive dissonance to be the rule of the day. One can preach a sermon invoking phrases such as “take up your cross and follow Christ," "die to self and live for Him,” “love your neighbor as yourself,” and find no disagreement. One can preach Biblical messages on discipleship or even stewardship and watch heads nod in unabashed affirmation. The problem is that what people intellectually agree with can be wildly different from their internalization and response to these things.

In a few days, I will expand upon this topic. For the time being, consider this: how big is the gap between what you believe and how you act? The disparity between these two things must be acknowledged, and we must seek God's grace in contending with it.