–Abraham Lincoln (March 30, 1863)–

And since then we have had 146 years of one generation after another consistently getting more and more selfish. It has not been an addition factor from one generation to the next, but a multiplication factor. The concentration of selfishness and evil in the country is astounding! We do not live in a “good” place. We do not live in a “good” culture. Our America does not acknowledge God, much less need, thank, or desire Him. Yet there are the few who do see Him for who He is, and see us for who we are, and with those few I pray and toil and cry for the many. We are all too arrogant. We are all too prideful. We are all too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

So this is my struggle this morning. I am a head person. A thinker. A knowledge person. When a problem comes up, I want to get all the information possible so I can go about solving the problem logically and systematically.  I’m not sure how I came to be this way, because I have also always been a dreamer with my head in the clouds, so this is all really weird for me. But my struggle as a thinker, is to feel. I often push my heart out of the way because knowledge is black and white, concrete, solid. I can deal with the sure, the predictable. I don’t think that knowledge is bad, but the exclusivity that I hold it to is. God is seeking those who would worship him in spirit and in truth, and I worship him in truth, but have a hard time worshiping him in spirit. I don’t know, maybe it is because I know what my life looks like when following my heart. I am a very selfish person when I follow my heart. Or maybe I wasn’t really following my heart, but my idolatrous desires. Or was it my unregenerate heart that has always led me to such selfishness? All I know is that in following my heart in the past, I have heart a lot of people, not least of which is my wife, and always God in the most.

So because of that history, I don’t trust my heart and have failed to follow it. But I have also failed to live with it. I was reading in Jeremiah this morning and something I have read before stood out to me. Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it.” This is what I am afraid of. I know that there needs to be a balance of the knowledge of the truth, and the following the spirit, and I know that despite my resistance, the spirit is doing his regenerative work in me. But I still struggle when reading the Bible, writing, and living, to let my heart feel what I am learning. To let the knowledge sink in. To fear, to love, to hurt, to be responsive.

The very next verse says, “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind”. So my mind and understanding reads this and says that the answer is to let the Lord search my heart and mind, and let the Holy Spirit interpret to me what is good and what is evil, but I have no idea how to do that. I understand that I pray for exactly that, and that He is faithful to do it, because that’s what he wants anyways, but it is still a struggle to me because I don’t feel the process, and it’s not something my mind can analyze. I don’t often enough take the time to look back and see how he has done so much of it already.

When I was learning to drive, I was a hot rodder. I lived in a very small country town in California where cars were a big thing. I had grown up reading hot rod and street rodder magazines, and building car models. I took auto shop, and loved hot rods. When I first got my license, a whole new world opened up to me. I remember bragging to all my friends that between the time I was 16 and 18, I had been pulled over by cops at least 27 times, and never got a ticket. That all changed the day I turned 18, when I got like 6 tickets within the next 6 months. That got very expensive, but didn’t stop me or even slow me down. I thought that I was plenty safe at 90 miles an hour and I knew how to control my vehicle, and that rules like speed limits where “more of guidelines than rules”. I remember saying every time someone new would ride with me, “those signs are just suggestions, recommendations”.

That is how I viewed them. I also remember a friend of mine saying about stop signs, “No cop, no stop!” My philosophy on “California stops” was “The sign is red, just like your stop lights. It doesn’t actually mean that you need to stop, just that your stop lights need to come on. So if you step on the brake pedal just enough for the brake lights to come on, you’re good to go.”

The idea of laws being viewed as “guidelines” now makes me sick. I just realized that not only did I view the traffic laws this way, but I viewed all of life this way. The traffics laws are not guidelines, they a LAWS. A “law” is defined as follows: the system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties. It is not a suggestion, but a requirement to follow. It would be one thing if my views had stopped there, but they didn’t. I realized that this view of laws as suggestions has influences my entire view of life, and of God. I viewed all authority as making recommendations. I viewed the Bible as good ideas that I should follow, but where not truly necessary, and for sure not enforced.

This viewpoint has become for our generation a pandemic. An epidemic is a disease that effects a small group of people for a little while, and then goes away. A pandemic is a large scale illness that is very destructive, killing masses, and doesn’t go away. Our generation has lost all respect for God and his word. We see the Bible as suggestions or recommendations or guidelines. We do not submit to them as if we are under their authority. We interpret the Bible to fit our understanding. We define and interpret the Bibles to be relevant to our lives instead of letting the Bible interpret and define us.

This same view is infecting our generation, and most people don’t even see what it is that’s really going on. There is a philosophy being embraced largely by liberal christians right now called “trajectory hermeneutics”. Hermeneutics is simply the way you explain something. I know, big word for a simple concept. Trajectory is the direction of a thing. What the trajectory hermeneutic view of the Bible means is this: The Bible is a guideline, with helpful historical accounts and insight, but we have come a long way since those primitive times, and are higher evolved, therefore we don’t really need the Bible because we are higher than it, although it is still helpful. What this really says is that we are higher than God himself, and that we no longer need Him. It is all an attempt to glorify and embrace the original SIN of Satan. Our modern christian culture is falling fast for this concept because it appeals so much to our flesh. It means that we can do what we want, without having to submit to authority. It means that we have no restrictions because we reject that God has set rules that we will have to answer to. It, in effect, rejects that FACT that God is God, and makes us god.

The trajectory hermeneutic is something that is not touted by those who follow it. They would not ever proclaim that belief because they know that it is not right, it is sin. It is a sinful rejection of God’s authority. Yet many popular preachers and leaders these days are leading people this direction.

To be continued…………………………….

But our very Life descended hither, and bore our death, and slew it, out of the abundance of His own life; and thundering He called loudly to us to return hence to Him into that secret place whence He came forth to us—first into the Virgin’s womb, where the human creature was married to Him,—our mortal flesh, that it might not be for ever mortal,—and thence “as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.” For He tarried not, but ran crying out by words, deeds, death, life, descent, ascension, crying aloud to us to return to Him. And He departed from our sight, that we might return to our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here. He would not be long with us, yet left us not; for He departed thither, whence He never departed, because “the world was made by Him.” And in this world He was, and into this world He came to save sinners, unto whom my soul doth confess, that He may heal it, for it hath sinned against Him. O ye sons of men, how long so slow of heart? Even now, after the Life is descended to you, will ye not ascend and live? But whither ascend ye, when ye are on high, and set your mouth against the heavens? Descend that ye may ascend, and ascend to God. For ye have fallen by “ascending against Him.” Tell them this, that they may weep in the valley of tears, and so draw them with thee to God, because it is by His Spirit that thou speakest thus unto them, if thou speakest burning with the fire of love.

–St. Augustine’s Confessions, Book 3, Chapter 12–

Repentance. Martin Luther said: “All of a christian’s life is to be one of repentance.” It is also on this topic that Mark Driscoll said: “Fish swim, birds fly, christians repent. It’s what we do.” So when the “hot button” topic of homosexuality comes up, so must all sexual immorality. When all sexual immorality is brought up, we must look at the log in our own eye, being humble and realistic about the fact that we too are sinners, and have sexual sin, and we must repent. No matter how small or how large we feel our sexual sin is, It is ALL sin to God and unacceptable, even if it is acceptable to our culture. We must humbly come before God and confess and repent of our own sexual sin, and until we do, we have no right to go any further and condemn anyone else. When we do humbly repent though, the Lord is faithful to transform our heart’s desires as we renew our minds with His Word, and we begin to hate the sin that we have lived with and held so tight to, and love righteousness. Then and only then, can we go to our brothers, humbly and lovingly, with genuine love, knowing the slavery that sin holds us in, as well as the freedom that Christ brings, and confront the sin that they live with, be it pornography, lust, sex before marriage, sex outside of marriage, or homosexuality. We are then not only qualified, but obligated to call our brothers and sisters in Christ to repent of their sin, that that may be restored to Christ as well.

Tragically, most people confronted with this idea and their sexual sin, will see this as a mountain to high to climb. They (you) will, as Romans 1 says, “suppress the truth because of their unrighteousness”. As the rich man did when Jesus told him to sell all his possession, you will drop your head and turn and walk away because the cost of discipleship is too great. You will ignore the truth rather than repent and obey. I know because I was that man.

p.s. For help with sexual sin, I highly recommend 2 books and prescribe 2 exercises. The two books are the Bible (I prefer the ESV translation) and Porn-Again Christian. For exercises, try repenting, and obeying. I promise they will make you healthy.

The rebuke of the wise causes humility that leads to repentance. The songs of fools leads to taking life too lightly and thinking everything is good fun, including sin. The songs of fools, or the “fun” of fools quickly make light of sin, as I saw at the Christian Camp I worked/lived at in Santa Cruz. People began to drink and swear and smoke and talk dirty, and I remember a friend of mine saying (about those things), “I think Jesus would think it’s funny and laugh too”. Now I realize that he most certainly would not! And it’s only through the rebuke if the wise that I have realized this. Through the rebuke from pastors such as Alistair Begg and Mark Driscoll and John Piper. I now understand the importance of surrounding myself with the wise, and letting my intake weigh heavily on the side of wisdom and teaching, as opposed to entertainment and folly. This could be a good indicator in a person’s life, especially if they are struggling with feeling empty of God, and dry. It could be that they are listening too much to the songs of fools, all which are vanity and meaningless, causing the person that consumes them to feel and be worthless and vane. What they need then, is a Godly reality check, some rebuke from the wise. Oh God, that you would raise up wise men, that more people would be rebuked! How our generation, our church, need Godly rebuke! How I need Godly rebuke, constantly!

One day the boy was sitting at the kitchen table, eating an orange, when he had a thought. He thought “I love oranges so much that I think I should grow oranges”. He thought that since he was so good at picking out oranges, he could surely grow the best oranges anyone had ever seen or tasted. So he went to the store to look for a good orange to start growing oranges from. He looked over all the oranges extra carefully this time. He wanted to make sure that he found just the right one. After feeling and smelling every single one, he found the one he wanted. It was big and shiny, and you could smell how sweet it was from a foot away. So he bought the orange and hurried home. When the boy got home he peeled the orange very carefully and took out the seeds. Then he ate the orange. It was just as good as he had hoped. After finishing the orange, it was time to get to work. So he dug a little hole in the dirt, grabbed the peel from the orange, and planted the orange peel ever so carefully, giving it plenty of water. After all, isn’t the peel the part of the orange that makes it look so good?

Weeks went by and the boy watered and waited, watered and waited, but nothing happened. After a year of watering and waiting, nothing grew. So he went to dig up the orange peel, but there was nothing there. All the boy could find was dirt and weeds. Being a year older, and still loving oranges, the boy wasn’t about to give up. He thought that maybe the problem was that because he had broken the peel to eat the orange, it might not have been able to grow. So he went back to the store and went through his routine. He went through every orange until he found it. The perfect orange. Not a blemish on it. As big as a softball, nice and soft but not squishy, and smelled perfectly sweet. He thought to himself, “Surely this orange looks so good, that when I put it in the ground, other oranges will almost sprout themselves instantly”. So he went home and planted the orange, being very careful not to break the peel.

And he watered and waited, watered and waited. After another year of watering and waiting, the boy saw no more oranges. So he went to dig up his orange to make sure it was okay, but there was nothing there. Once again all the boy could find was dirt, and lots of weeds. Being two years older than when he first began, the boy was smart enough now to know that if he can’t figure something out, to ask for help. So the Boy went to an orange grove, where an old man lived, taking great care of his thousands of orange trees. The boy said to the man, “Sir, I have been trying to grow oranges for two years now, and all I get is dirty. Can you teach me how to grow oranges?” The old man replied, “Boy, I can teach you everything you need to know about growing oranges, but first I need to know what you’ve been trying that hasn’t worked“. The boy told the man what he had tried each time, and the man giggled a little bit as he listened. Then he said, “Son, you see all these orange trees with all the wonderful oranges, just ready to be picked and eaten?” “Yes, sir”, said the boy. “Well,” said the old man, “You can’t grow an orange from a peel. The peel is just what you use to judge the orange. You look at the peel and feel the peel so that you know what’s inside the peel, but if you plant the peel, it’s not gonna grow an orange. In fact, if you plant a whole orange, it’s not gonna grow an orange, just as you already found out. You can’t even plant a branch from an orange tree and get an orange. You see, boy, If you want an orange that looks better than any you’ve ever seen, you have to start with a good seed. Then you have to take very good care of that seed, watering it just the right amount, not too much, not too little. Then, when it starts to spout out of the ground, you have to make sure to pull out all the weeds, so that it can get sunlight and so the roots don’t get choked out. When it goes from a sprout to becoming a tree, you will have to prune off all the branches that don’t bear fruit.”

“Wow”, said the boy. “That sounds like a lot of work and a long time before you can eat any oranges.” “Oh it is,” said the old man, “but worth every second of it when I see a boy like you growing big and strong and healthy because of eating so many oranges, just like the ones these seeds will grow.” And he handed the boy a bag of orange seeds.

- The End -

Acts 2:42-47 says:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

I hear and see so often, people taking verse 47 about how there where so many people saved at one time, and that continuing day after day. So people look back a few verses and figure that the reason must be because they had “true community”, they were “living out the church”, or “being the church”, and people saw the love and goodness and saw God in the peoples lives and wanted what they saw. So we have churches trying so hard to have “authentic community”, and “soul environments”, and “real relationships”, or spending so much time “serving the community”, thinking that if we can only be what the church is supposed to be, that people will be attracted to us and feel a need for the church and for God. If people only had a little bit longer of an attention span, they could go back just two more verses, and find the real cause of what was going on.

The having all things in common and selling possessions to take care of others and breaking bread together are all just part of the orange peel. The peel is what you see. In fact the peel is all you can use to judge the orange by. But if you try and plant the peel, you won’t get more oranges. The orange peel will actually make great compost with time, actually benefiting all the weeds that grow around it as it breaks down, but you will not get more oranges. It doesn’t matter how perfect the peel looks, even if the peel is completely whole, unbroken, pure, with the fruit and the seed inside. If you plant it, it won’t grow. No matter how much you till the soil, add fertilizer, and water. The results are the same, compost.

If  you want to grow oranges, you break the peel and throw it away. You get rid of the fruit. You start with the seed. Verse 42 is the seed. Devotion to the Word of God, and to the breaking of bread (humility before God), and prayer. If you don’t start with a good seed, you won’t get anywhere. But even with a good seed, there are still obstacles. When the seed starts to sprout, there WILL be weeds trying to choke out the roots and block the sapling from the sun. You will need to pull out these weeds, otherwise the sapling will die, and never develop into a mature fruitful tree. Then comes the pruning. When the tree is mature enough to produce fruit, not all branches will fruit. Some branches will fruit, and you will be very happy with these branches and their fruit. But some branches will not fruit, but will become like leaches, taking resources from the rest of the tree and it’s roots only to be wasted in producing nothing more than leaves that fall off every year. These unfruitful branches must be cut off in order for all the resources to be used efficiently in working towards the goal of producing true, high quality, fruit that is sweet to the one who reaps. Lastly, don’t forget that it is not only the little baby trees that need to be pruned. While the baby trees may need to be pruned more often and with smaller branches, fully grown, mature trees will have massive branches that become unfruitful, and will need to be more than trimmed. This big huge branches are much harder to cut down, usually requiring a chain saw. They also tend to carry some sentimental value like being the branch that you used to swing from as a kid, and others may tell you that it looks great and you should just leave it. But in the end the tree won’t matter in the least, nor will the peel, the weeds, the soil or the seeds. In the end, the tree has a purpose, and the only thing that will have mattered is the quality of the fruit and the master’s enjoyment of it.

(p.s.  Even here, at the devotion to the apostles teaching and the breaking of bread and prayers, we cannot stop, for this is not the beginning either. If we keep going back and reading, we will find that these three things are yet another outflow of what came before. Going back, we find that these things were done because the Holy Spirit had convicted the hearts of the people, because of  sermon that Peter gave, because of what the people had done to Jesus, because of what Jesus had done for them, because of what they had done to God, while God had loved us and did not deserve our disobedience. So it all goes back to the fact that God loves us, and we don’t love him back, but He loves us still.)

So I was thinking about how it’s so great that every time someone brings their car to me, it’s almost always so I can bring them bad news, because I love disappointing people(sarcasm). I then got to thinking about how That is the direction that God is calling me spiritually, to tell people the bad news about how they are not the good little christians they thought they were, and that God is not happy with them. And I thought about how great it is that my whole life’s purpose could be to bring people bad news(more sarcasm).
Then I remembered something really great. εὐαγγέλιον, the gospel. The GOOD NEWS! What a relief! Whereas with cars, I only can bring people bad news, in Christ, I can give people the bad news, and then show them the Good News! Very encouraging for me. Still, the good news is only good news if you first believe the bad news, but it’s a lot better than having to say, “Your car is broken and not worth the money that you don’t have to fix it, sorry, you’re screwed”.

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

I guess I thought that I had figured You out
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about
How You were mighty to save
Those were only empty words on a page
Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be
The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy?
What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame?
And a God who gave life “its” name?
What do I know of Holy?
Of the One who the angels praise?
All creation knows Your name
On earth and heaven above
What do I know of this love?

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

“What Do I Know Of Holy” – Addison Road

It started for me with the book “The Knowledge of the Holy”, a little book by A.W. Tozer. During my second time reading the book, I heard this song on my Pandora radio station that did a great job describing how the book made me see myself and God.

I am realizing that as a generation, a nation, and worse: a church, that we have made God too small, and ourselves too big. Tozer puts it this way:

“Sin has many manifestations but its essence is one. A moral being , created to worship before the throne of God, sits on the throne of his own selfhoodand from that elevated position declares, “I AM.”"

He later calls this throne a “stolen throne”, because the high throne is not ours to take. So how have we come to justify this throne as a nation, as a generation, and as a church?!? We as christians claim God, but do not obey Him. We ask Him for help, but do not follow Him. We boast in the great sacrifice that Jesus made for us, without making any sacrifice ourselves for the one who paid the price that was too great for us to pay. What we claim as christianity today and what we claim to have saved us has cost us nothing, and we have sacrificed nothing for it. Let me ask you then, how can a person claim christianity and salvation, with no change, no before and after, no sacrifice. The Bible that I read and believe speaks nothing of a mental change toward morality, which is the change that many christians count as sanctification. The Bible I read speaks of total death. Complete death to the person you were, that wreched, selfish, sinful theif that sat on your throne above God, claiming that life is about you, and living life for yourself. The Bible doesn’t speak of this person being rehab-ed, it speaks of putting this person to death, completely and forever.

“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

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a very rich book that basically is a long sermon diving into and explaining the sermon on the mount. The main theme of the book is Grace: cheap grace versus costly grace. See, the christianity that I have been talking about is cheap grace. We claim grace as an attempt to justify ourselves to others and to ourselves. This won’t cut it with God. You will not be able to stand in front of The Holy, The Almighty, The Just, The Righteous, and say” I have been saved by grace, when you have lived by cheap grace. Because of our sin, our selfishness, our self reign, WE KILLED GOD! Jesus Christ, God’s son, was sacrificed, as a payment for what WE have done to HIM. If that doesn’t hurt you, you may want to very seriously question yourslelf and ask God if you truly understand that. Costly grace is what Jesus died for. It cost Jesus his life, along with a lot of other suffering. And it costs us too. It is free as in bringing us freedom, but it is not free as in costs nothing. It cost Jesus His life, and that is also what He demands of us.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” – Matthew 16:24

The grace that Jesus bought with his life, is received by us sacrificing ours. We are not to simply be better people because we are saved. We are to put to death everything sinful in us, the seen and the unseen. Nothing is hidden to God, and there is nothing that he will overlook. We are to nail our sinful desires to the cross, and live as new creations. We are not permitted to keep on sinning because we will be forgiven. We are to repent and put the sin to death, completely dead, so dead that it does not come back. If it continues to come back, it wasn’t completely dead, and you weren’t truly repentant.

So I ask myself, who do I think I am, upset when I don’t get enough hours at work, or when I can’t run because it’s rainy? Who do I think I am when I question and don’t trust what God is doing with my daughter’s health? Who do I think I am when I am discontent with my life? Who do I think I am? Who I am is not an all knowing God. Who I am is merely a creature with limited thought and knowledge given to me by a God much bigger than my imagination. A God who we can only catch glimpses of, because we cannot comprehend His greatness. Everything we know about Him, and greatness and majesty that we think is so awesome and amazing, is but a sliver of what we cannot truly know, things on which even angels long to see. So I ask myself again: Who do I think I am, and what do I know of Holy?