• Israel didn’t just commit adultery against the LORD, they committed malicious treason. 
• Israel deserved abandonment and annihilation from the LORD.
• We don’t deserve mercy and we don’t deserve to be God’s people.
• God was not happy with Israel. He didn’t overlook their sins.
• Israel used the gifts from the LORD to make herself more appealing to her lovers that she whored after.
• The modern Church is not all that different than the Israel Hosea prophesied to.
• Do you use the gifts you have received from God to commit sin against Him?

If you’re in Anderson and want to study with us on Monday mornings at 6:30, please let us know. We usually meet at the Corner Bagel Shop.

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]]> http://new.theophilux.com/2010/02/05/philosophy-of-entitlement/feed/ 0 http://new.theophilux.com/2010/01/01/resolve/ http://new.theophilux.com/2010/01/01/resolve/#comments Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:54:20 +0000 DannyNelson http://new.theophilux.com/?p=2104 Yesterday I was discussing new-years-resolutions with a co-worker. He asked me what mine was. I told him that I didn’t make new-years-resolution because I never kept them and they weren’t meaningful to me.

However, as I was showering this morning (the place where most meaningful though comes from) I thought of a resolution that might actually be meaningful and I would challenge you to take it on as well. It is certainly not a new concept and I don’t take credit for it, but here it is:

Be one man (or one woman, as the case may be).

That is my resolution. But what does it mean?

Think about it. How many faces do you wear? Do you act differently at work, school, church, around your parents, in-laws, spouse, or children? Is it more acceptable to you in some circles to be crude and profane while in other circles you would never dream of exhibiting such behavior?

Who am I? Who are you? Is it the face we show each other or do we just see each other’s masks?

My resolution is to wear the mask with the highest standard. Right now, for better or worse, that means always acting like my son is in the room with me. I try to set a good example for him, so if I am always “setting an example” for my son, then I should always, in theory, be on my best behavior.

Admittedly, this is not a perfect formula… I sometimes lose my cool with my son and set a terrible example. But at least it’s a goal.

What do you think?

http://bit.ly/4mLl02

Bill shared three concluding points at the end of his testimony. Here they are as I recorded them:

1. It is in the darkest days of our lives that God is working in the greatest way.
2. Reflect on the power of God for salvation. There was nobody that I (Bill) know of that was praying on my behalf, but Jesus was interceding for me.
3. God is in the business of saving people. He wants us who are saved to be in that business with him.

Amen? Amen.

Coaches and teachers have used such exclusive selectivity to great effect, making high performance standards a condition for acceptance and approval. Some are so adept that a mere frown or cold shoulder can send the student to the gym or library for hours of diligent work in the hopes that the frown will turn to a smile, and she’ll be IN. Country clubs, bridge clubs, fraternities, sororities are all famous for it. (Joe is IN; he’s one of us, but Jane is OUT!) Adulthood is not the exclusive venue for such behavior, either. On the playground an adorable six-year-old announces, “Alex and Cameron can play on the monkey bars, but you and J.J. can’t.”

This “club mentality” is one that we Christians are powerful to reverse. Rather than relish in exclusion, we can, and often do, emphasize inclusion. “Do you know Jesus? We’ll then, you’re IN.”A Reformed perspective gives us the theological underpinning for such a reversal. Concepts like Calvin’s unconditional election and verses like John 10:28 (No one will snatch Christ’s sheep from His hand.) are essential to our understanding of a secure salvation and are sources of great comfort to us. We and our brothers and sisters are eternally a part of God’s family. Theologically we know this as justification, and theologically we can distinguish it from sanctification, but when it comes to practical daily life there seems to be a disconnect.

While God’s love for us is undeserved, unearned and unconditional, it is wrong to believe that our behaviors and attitudes are inconsequential. When I sin, I’m pretty sure that something is required of me despite my “club membership” in the family of God. Christ’s admonition to the churches in Revelation 2 & 3 underscores such consequences. “I know your works, your labor, your patience . . . . Nevertheless I have this against you.” In my distorted understanding, I can interpret, “I have this against you” as “You’re rejected; you’re OUT!” Conversely, it’s easy to interpret, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you” as “Relax. Kick back. You’re IN.” I find myself wavering emotionally in my relationship with the Lord between feeling either OUT or IN.

It occurs to me that I am confusing feeling at peace with God with feeling at ease with Him. While we can and should have the former, I don’t know that the latter is ever entirely possible. I think again of Peter. In a mere six verses in Matthew 16, he hears Christ’s “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah” but then His “Get behind me, Satan!” Despite Peter’s status as one of Christ’s closest followers (surely he was IN), misunderstanding the nature of God’s kingdom earned Peter a resounding reprimand.

There seems to exist in the church at the moment a sort of laissez faire attitude that assumes perhaps too much comfort with the Savior. We waltz into and out of everything from church commitments to marriage commitments with the supreme confidence of one who is IN. Like Peter, we have no problem telling the Lord how it really ought to go down. A brother is called by God to fill an important appointment in his church but resigns when the going gets tough. He claims God’s release even though the key position remains vacant and important work is left undone. A sister rationalizes the impending divorce of a believing couple because, “It’s been years, and you know, the marriage was never really very good” and thereby denies the power of God to bring reconciliation and the subsequent glory such reconciliation would bring Him.

These behaviors are suggestive of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s cheap grace which says, “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness.” This is to confuse grace with discipleship. Grace is imperative; it gets us into “the club.” But while membership has its privileges, it also has its requirements. To be Christ’s disciple means to be jealous for God’s kingdom just as Christ was jealous for it. Hebrews 12:3-8 is a good place to get a picture of what it means to be IN. To be His son is to be disciplined by Him. When we get the frown or the cold shoulder – the rebuke – it is not a rejection but the very evidence that we are in fact IN, that we belong to Him and that he has important kingdom work to do in and through us.

Clearly the first thing required was the fruit of the spirit: gentleness . . . kindness . . . longsuffering . . . (arrrgh!) self-control. My success or failure there is visible not only in heaven, but apparently also in some cyber-vault because each of the 2640 times I called (and yes, I am making that up, but it seems only a slight exaggeration) I was told “this call may be recorded for quality assurance.” So, patience, kindness, self-control. But what else did the Lord want?

As those of you who read my last post will know, God has been working Mark 4:35 – 41 into my soul. One day as I began to make yet another call regarding our phone service, or rather the lack of it, I paused to ask God for success. I was keenly aware that while it was proving impossible to find anyone at the other end of the telephone line who was both concerned to address the problem and powerful enough to do so, I was praying to the Lord God who is both. It is the essential dynamic of this passage in Mark. Jesus is sleeping soundly in the boat as the disciples fear that the storm will annihilate them. “Don’t you care?” they ask. Jesus rises and proves both his love and his power. In my prayer I was trying to operate within the reality of Mark 4:39 as I understood it, that the Lord of the universe could answer my prayer, calm my storm with a word – all loving, all powerful Jesus. As I prayed for success, I wanted God’s kingdom of order and peace to supercede my circumstance – my phone line to be specific.

However, as I asked the Lord what He was doing, He made it clear that the action point here did not yet concern my circumstance. His will was not that He invade my kingdom, but that I immigrate to His. My prayer became, “Lord, you are my Lord. I don’t know why we’re having this difficulty. I’d like it fixed. But I sense that you desire to do a greater work in my heart. What ever it is, do it, Lord Jesus.”

As I reconsidered these verses in Mark, it occurred to me that the disciples approached Jesus in accordance with their own kingdom. “Lord, do this; do that; comfort me; help me bail water.” But Jesus answers the disciples in accordance with His kingdom – He supernaturally silences the storm. What remarkable grace that He answers from the provisions of His kingdom and not theirs.

How often does He answer us in the same way, but we don’t have the wisdom to see it. Or worse, does He ever comply with our wishes and answer from the poverty of our own kingdoms? I think of the quail in the desert. God’s will was the supernatural manna, but the Israelites wanted meat. God gave them meat, and they choked on it. I think of the Pharisees praying on the street corners. Jesus makes clear that they have their reward, the praise of men rather than the approbation of God. It is terribly sobering to think of the ways my life has been impoverished because I was determined that God answer me according to my kingdom. How blessed that He has often answered the prayer I should have prayed and not the one I did pray. I’m struck with how earth-bound I am.

Psalm 119:35-37 has special meaning here: “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments . . . Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain, Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things . . . .” (my emphasis). How the psalmist understands our need of God’s intervention to choose the eternal over the temporal, the spiritual over the carnal! Interestingly, it was at least two weeks after this prayer of mine before the Lord addressed the circumstance that prompted it and restored our full phone service. He was still inclining my heart, no doubt, turning my eyes. And I am thankful. Oh the blessed, frustrating, wonderful, difficult disruptions of the ultimate move, our immigration into God’s kingdom.

The apostle Peter closes his section on Godly relationships with this:

8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9  Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For

“Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
11 let him turn away from evil and do good;
let him seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16  having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.-1 Peter 3:8-17 (ESV)

Much consideration by many has been made on the verses immediately preceding this (1 Peter 3:1-7) in dealing with marital relationship.  In the section we will be discussing, Peter begins his discussion of suffering followers of Christ will endure as a result of their zeal for righteousness.  This can also be applied to the marriage relationship (and to all relationships, but the focus of this article will be on the spousal relationship).

Marriage is delicate.  The two members are forced to be with each other continuously.  Nerves fray, anger rises.  Forgiveness and grace are pivotal to a healthy relationship.  No person is perfect, and no person deserves grace.  But without unmerited favor, a relationship will self-destruct.  Love will cease, and separation may follow.

In the painful times, in the hardest of times, there is suffering.  Often, both parties suffer because both parties have wronged.  They have hurt one another.  The wounds become sensitive and in a desire to protect oneself, the other is often attacked.  This breeds more of the same.  They downward spiral is difficult to get off of when both are suffering.  Yet this is bad suffering.  This is suffering without the righteousness.

Peter is addressing a people that will suffer in their relationship to everyone in the world due to Christ.  Peter’s audience loves the Lord and they desire for righteousness.  Peter says that they will suffer.  This suffering of the early church was suffering unto death.  And the apostle Paul stated that he believed that their sufferings were incomparable to the glory of that righteousness of Christ which all believers will one day fully enjoy.  Peter says that it is actually good for a person to suffer for the cause of Christ.

The suffering in a troubled marriage is not the same as this, but it can be similar.  People in the United States do not suffer unto death for the cause of Christ.  But there is suffering to be had for Christ.

So how does one suffer in a troubled marriage for Christ?

Peter says to not repay evil for evil.  But he does not say to remain neutral in the situation.  He instructs us to bless when we are wronged.  We are to refrain from speaking evil of others, no matter what they have done to us.  We are not to curse one another, even if we are cursed.

When one member of a troubled marriage adopts the way of grace, forgiving and blessing instead of begrudging and harming, Christ is glorified and that member may suffer for a time.  It feels good to return evil for evil.  Not doing so can be one’s act of killing the flesh.  Doing what Christ calls us to do can bring pain and difficulty for a time.   But this act of grace, blessing instead of cursing, is true love.  This is essential to the health and vitality of a marriage.  It is living as Christ.  For Christ died in the act of blessing in the face of cursing.

So, this is pivotal in the daily small things of a marriage.  Adopting this lifestyle early in marriage strengthens the marriage enormously.  It is the very foundation to a marriage.  And it is never to late.  It will be quite difficult to do this if one’s marriage has not been defined by it.  It will be quite difficult as insults and accusations come and as the other partner is distancing.  There will be more suffering if the relationship is strained.  The one acting in grace will be tempted often to return evil for evil.  And if they do, it gratifies instantly.  But the bitter aftertaste of that never fades.  And blessing in return for evil hurts instantly, but the sweet taste is lasting.

“TURN AWAY FROM EVIL AND DO GOOD; SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT.” -Psalm 34:14

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
Romans 5:18 

Praise God for His faithfulness in our relationship! I am so thankful to God for pairing me with Amanda Faith Tollison Nelson.

Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
1 Peter 2:17

Is it a matter of the heart? Is it a matter of the words we speak in public or private? 

In the United States, does it apply to the President? The Congress? The Supreme Court? The Constitution?