Saturday, December 29, 2007

Are You Walking Alone?

   God said in Genesis 2:18 it was not good for man to be alone.  It has never been God’s intention man walk alone.  In John 14 Jesus was preparing His disciples for His impending death.  A primary concern was that the disciples realize they were not going to be left alone.  Jesus promised in John 14:16-17 that the Holy Spirit would be sent as a helper after His death.  Jesus would not allow the disciples to be left orphans.  God would send the Spirit to help them in life’s walk.
   Today we do not walk alone.  In our fellowship,  perhaps our greatest misunderstanding concerns the Holy Spirit.  We make Him the equivalent of written text. To limit the Spirit by making Him only available by reading Scripture is a false understanding of God. 
   The Lord tells us that the Spirit will dwell in us.  As God dwells in us He will do many things for us.  The Spirit is intended as our helper.  How often have we been taught that if we will just read more Scripture, pray more, go to church more often, choose better friends, or maybe try harder we can be the kind of Christian God wants us to be.  Unfortunately we have forgotten God’s promise.  God promised to send the Spirit to help with our journey as a Christian.  Could it be that too often we think we are walking alone?
Posted by onedaysoon at 21:17:31 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Behaving Our Way Into Heaven!

  

Too often we leave the impression we believe we must “behave our way into heaven.”  On the surface we will acknowledge salvation is by God’s grace.  Yet, when we are pressed on the issue we always fall back to the old addage, “we are serving the Lord so we can get to heaven.”  When we get to heaven we will not be there because we have behaved our way into heaven.  We will be there because God has declared us holy.  Ephesians 2:8 says “for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God  not by works, so that no one can boast.”  God saves us from our sins!  We cannot behave in a way good enough to demand God forgive us our sins.  Must we do good works for God?  Absolutely we should.  We were created in Christ to do good works.  What we often do not understand is that our salvation is not tied to behaving our way into heaven.  Our good works are done to bring glory to God.  We must recognize it is through the blood of Jesus on the cross we have been saved from our sins!
Posted by onedaysoon at 17:06:16 | Permalink | Comments (8)

Monday, December 24, 2007

A Better Hope

In Hebrews 7 Scripture tells the Hebrew Christians that the new covenant and the new high priest is superior to the old.  In verse 19 it says, for the law made nothing perfect, and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.  Jesus is a perfect high priest.  He was tempted in every point like we are yet was without sin.  Because Christ is now our high priest and has shed His blood we are able to draw near to God.  This means we have the ability to enter into relationship with God.  Hebrews 10:22 says, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.   A purpose  of Scripture is to allow us  knowledge necessary to draw near to God.  What law keeping could never do Christ as our high priest allows.  The new covenant brought to us by the blood of Christ is a better hope.  As Christians we are adopted into the family of God.  What stronger relationship or better hope than that!

Posted by onedaysoon at 04:57:34 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Thursday, December 20, 2007

True Worshippers

In John 4 Jesus is speaking with a Samaritan woman.  She asks a question concerning worship.  Her question concerned the place worship was to take place.  Jesus said, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”  He goes on to say, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”  Too often our interpretation of Jesus comment is centered in our pre-conceived doctrine.  This is equal to attempting to put a square peg in a round hole.  It just isn’t the way it ought to be done.  Doctrine is built on interpretation, interpretation is never decided by our pre-conceived doctrine.  Our doctrine has often determined that the correct interpretation is  as follows: correct worship is done with correct attitude (spirit) and with proper items and elements of worship (truth) as determined by the worship pattern found in the New Testament.
   Jesus could just as easily said to the Samaritan woman, “You are asking the wrong question.”  True worshippers aren’t determined by where they worship.  True worship isn’t determined by the ritualism of Judaism nor by following a ritualistic pattern we might find in Scripture.  Jesus was telling this woman  worship was going to change drastically from what had been known until that point.
   In Romans 12:1-2 Scripture says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.”  The day was coming when the ritualistic worship of Judaism with its dead sacrifices would no longer suffice.  Soon true worshippers would offer their lives as living sacrifices.  Paul said this is your “spiritual act of worship” The new was drastically different from the old way of Judaism.  This new way of worshipping the Lord in spirit was more than ritualism with attitude.  
   In John 17:17 Jesus said, ”Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”  The Word being referred to is Christ himself.  John 17:18-19 gives us  insight as it says, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world, For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”  In addition Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life no man comes to the father except by me.”  Jesus is truth.  Living lives of Sacrifice in Christ represents the true worshipper.  If we want the spiritual blessing of being a true worshipper we must be in Christ.  How drastically different this is from the Jewish ritualism in the day of the Samaritan woman.  How different this is from the legalistic ritualism of today.

Posted by onedaysoon at 04:39:54 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Monday, December 17, 2007

What is the Purpose of the New Testament?

   I grew up being taught that a major purpose in my Christian life was to restore the ancient patterns of New Testament Christianity.  I never questioned that mindset.  From my earliest abilities to comprehend I was taught this was our first and primary responsibility.  I cannot tell you the number of sermons I heard  mentioning Scripture as the “blueprint” for the New Testament church.  It was strongly implied that the most important thing  we could do was make sure that we adhered to the patterns Scripture laid down for us.  In the minds of those who taught me, this foundational fact was as real as  God Himself.  
   As I began to question this teaching I began to question many other things as well.  I had never

considered the validity of these points.  I searched the Scriptures with the utmost diligence but the results were always the same. Scripture did not teach  my responsiblity  to restore the church.  There were  questions that continued to haunt me as I considered this so called foundational truth.  Questions such as , “How did I know God intended the church be restored?”  “What proof did I have that God lost

the church?   If God had lost the church who was I to appoint myself as the one in charge of restoring it?  Would we have the ability to restore something God lost?  The mindset that we are appointed restorationalist is the height of arrogance and self-righteousness.  In fact this borders on blasphemy.
    The doctrine of restoration was one of the goals entertained by the Pharasees.  Their intent was to restore Judaism to the purity it held when given to Moses at the mount.  Is there a parallel here or am I reading too much into the similarities?
     The writings of the New Testament aren’t intended as a pattern or as a rule book.  Scripture was given for entirely different reasons.  First, they were written to show  the way of salvation, how we get into Christ.  Second, these writings of God show us how to deal with various problems facing Christians in  everyday life.  Third, God’s word allows mankind to know certain truths about God.  This allows  us  insight into God’s personality and integrity.  With this knowledge we are able to build  relationship with God.  This is part of the spiritual aspect of Christianity which can’t be found through the doctrines of patternism and restoration.  Think about it.

Posted by onedaysoon at 05:45:22 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Is that your own Idea?

 

    Jesus was talking with Pilate as he was facing certain crucifiction.  Pilate had asked, ‘Are you king of the Jews?”  Jesus responded with this question, “Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?”  When we are dealing with religious matters shouldn’t we ask, “Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you?’  Much too often our views are formed by what others think. Maybe it is a well known preacher or perhaps even our parents.  Regardless we shouldn’t allow tradition or what others think or say determine what we believe is doctrinally correct.  When it comes to salvation we should never put our souls in the hands of others. Our beliefs ought to be determined by deep study of Scripture.  Our study should to be bathed in prayer.  Concerning religious doctrine we need to ask, “Is this our own idea or did someone tell us what to think?”
Posted by onedaysoon at 01:50:05 | Permalink | Comments (5)