Bookends of Worship

I work in structural steel fabrication and so on my desk are bookends made of sections of large thickness angle. We have similar angle bookends elsewhere in the office, on opposite ends of catalogs and code reference materials.  These bookends are weighty objects that bound a group of books so that they remain in order and upright.  Without solid bookends, the grouping will fall apart.

In reading through the book of 1 John I noticed some powerful bookends that are worth looking at carefully.  The book begins with the following:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life - the life was manifested, and we have seen, and we bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father was manifested to us - that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

And ends with the following:

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.  Amen.

If we look at these two statements we see some striking ideas.  First that there is one thing that is true.  Second that our choice is between two things that are known.  Third that our confidence and love is bound by two poles.

There is one thing that is true, and that one thing is God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).  Truth is often defined in terms of correspondence; that truth is that which corresponds to reality.  In the opening lines of 1 John we have a description on what has been since the beginning and which has been seen, that has been heard, that has been touched.  We do not believe in something imagined in the minds of men with no physical manifestation in based in reality.  We believe in something manifested physically in our time and space and history - Jesus the Christ.  We remember that the child was born, the Son was given.  He, the Word of Life, walked among us and was seen, heard and touched.  He was crucified, died and was buried having been touched.  He rose again and appeared to many witnesses, for forty days walking, eating, talking and being touched.  The Son of God was handled.  Idols were fashioned by men as objects of worship, and remain today, being fashioned by men in the factories of our minds - oftentimes as the works of our hands.  We are told at the beginning of 1 John to follow the truth of what man has handled that was given by God, and likewise are told at the end of 1 John to not follow the lie of what man has handled that is fashioned by his own hand.  Do follow that which is true, do not follow that which is a lie.  These are the two poles that bind our love - the positive pole of the truth and the life, the love of God in which we abide and find our redemption; that Jesus is Lord and Christ - and the negative pole of lies and death, that we can be God and fashion for ourselves the objects of our worship.  There is but one way to life everlasting, and it does not flow through the hands of men.  Our love and confidence is in that which is testified to in heaven by the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit and on earth by the Spirit, the water and the blood.  This Jesus is both Lord and Christ and we have life if we abide in Him.

The challenge is to take up the truth and abide in Christ daily, not in ourselves - in so doing we will know what love is, we will be confident in that which we know that has been revealed to us, we can be faithful to do all things as unto the Lord and glorify Him in all things which is our act of worship (in all things all day long) in living in accordance with the purpose for which we were created and brings true meaning in our lives.

Re-Defining Marriage?

What is marriage anyway?  It seems this question above any other ought to be explored these days.  In the last week i've seen no less than three articles in the local paper and have heard even more relative to the upcoming Health Care Bill discussions speaking to the status of marriage in the United States, more states expanding marriage to gay and lesbian couples (Washington D.C. being the latest) and other related topics.  Following are my thoughts on the subject for what they are worth:

First off, my starting point is similar to the one I presented in the last post on abortion, namely if marriage is just the joining of two entities who desire to enter into the state recognized union then by all means let there be no bounds on which two entities go through the process and call themselves married.  I don't intend to be crass or jocular at all in saying this, but if we continue down the road we are on I really don't think it will be that long until there is an outcry because a person cannot be married to their pet.  And why not?  If marriage is just the union of two entities who are dedicated to one another and who desire to live in the same home in a caring relationship then why should that not cover the situation I just described?  There are many who care deeply for their pets and in some situations the pet is very much loved and real caring relationship exists.

Re-defining marriage is only a problem if marriage was originally ordained by God as the Bible describes.  In other words, if man decides what constitutes marriage then it will always be in a state of flux.  As moods and conditions change, marriage as defined by the culture's ever changing attitudes must change as well.  However, if the Bible is true and the Biblical definition of marriage is true, then regardless of how culture changes marriage cannot change.  Why is that?  Why do Christians get so upset when gays and lesbians protest so vehemently to be included in marriage?

The answer is really quite simple.  God established marriage between a man and a woman as a picture, elsewhere described in the Bible as between Jesus and the Church, and also as a reflection of the very nature of God in the Trinity.  How so?  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have existed in the Trinity from eternity in a perfect relationship of community.  When God decided to create man, He said it was not good that man be alone and gave him a helpmeet, a partner of his own body to exist with in a relationship, namely woman (taken from man).  The man and the woman come together in an intimate way and the Holy Spirit then participates to knit the new life together in the mother's womb.  There is no other union where this particular arrangement, which was so beautifully orchestrated, can take place.  This is why there is no place in Scripture where homosexual relations are anything but condemned.  It is not that feelings are not present, or the desire to be intimate is not present, it is that any relationship other than that established by God does not reflect the glory of the relationship in the Trinity.  It does not bring glory to God, and therefore is a perversion of the natural, and should be condemned in any time and in any situation.

As to the sexual preferences of individuals the same sort of closer look is needed.  Desires and feelings for things other than those prescribed by God are real.  They are just as real as the desire to lie, to cheat, to steal, to dishonor parents.  As believers, we must acknowledge that the standard is the same for all sin, it is all deplorable for the same reason: we were created to bring glory to God, when we break His law whether in word, in thought, or in deed we fail to do as we were intended and are in need of forgiveness.  Faithfulness here I believe is the key.  We must either be faithful to God in being single, or be faithful to God in being married as God established.  In this point the Christian has done much damage over the years by not holding up the lifelong commitment and cheapened the covenant of marriage itself.  Just think, is it possible for the Trinity to be seperated?  That is exactly what divorce implies, that God can be seperated and eternal covenants can be broken.  The limitations of humankind, the fall of man and the subsequent provisions for divorce are not being discussed here, but the point remains that as Christians we must hold up our end of the bargain and not say on the one hand that marriage is a covenant relationship established by God and then run to divorce.  In "The Loving Opposition", Stanton L. Jones puts it this way, "Outside of the marriage of a man and woman, the proper use of sex is to honor God by costly obedience in living a chaste life...And so, the Christian vision for sexuality and marriage is our foundational reason for rejecting homosexual action as a legitimate moral option."

For the Christian, essence preceeds existance.  By that I mean that who we are should define what we do.  God created us to bring Him glory through being obedient to His Word, living our lives for Him in whatever circumstance or situation we are in, in short to use the free will with which we were created to actively pursue righteousness.  This is why marriage is such an important issue for believers, why homosexuality is similar to all other sin, it is attempting to revise or redefine our very essence, who we are, what we were created to be.

This is a tough issue and I hope this post has been presented in a way that lovingly but sternly addresses the issue from a Biblical point of view.  Quite simply, if the Bible is true then marriage is only defined and only legitimate if the arrangement is in accordance with the Word.  If marriage is defined by majority decision, or cultural climate, or poll data, or popular opinion then it can be anything and everything.  For my part, I believe even the idea that marriage can be re-defined is to believe a lie.  Marriage was established by God and will always be just as He originally gave it.  What contemporary culture chooses to call marriage, is not marriage re-defined, it is not marriage at all.

Christmas Truth - Day 3

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from days of eternity." Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securly, for then his greatness will reach the end of the earth. And he will be their peace." Micah 5:2-4

"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governer of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David." Luke 2:1-5

We have seen where history is important in the prophetic scheme. Isn't it fascinating that some 700 years before the birth of Jesus, a prophet in Judah told of the new ruler of Israel being born in Bethlehem Ephrathah and that a census (the first one inacted by the governer in authority) prompted Joseph to take Mary from Nazareth to Behlehem in Judea, the precise location prescribed. So it turns out not only history is important but geography as well.

It is also important to note that the prophecy says the ruler was tapped from eternity. Again the doctrine of the Trinity is on display. The Son has eternally existed, and will come to the town of Bethlehem (and not just any Bethlehem, but the particular town in Ephrathah). The significance of this cannot be overstated as we see elsewhere in scripture (Isaiah 9:6) that the son was given, it was the child that was born. The Son of God eternally exists, the earthly manifestation was for a specific and pre-determined time. More on this another time.

Finally, even the town is of significance as the name Bethlehem means "house of bread". So the one who is called the Bread of Life in John's gospel comes from the house of bread. "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread taht came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6:48-51 Once again we see the promise in the Old Testament (namely God sustaining His people physically) fulfilled in the person of Jesus who is THE eternal sustanence for those who would seek to turn from death and accept God's offer for life.

This bread that will sustain for eternity was offered to all not just for a day or a season, but for all time as Jesus (the Bread of Life) willfully chose to "...give for the life of the world." I hope if you have read this far that you either have already partaken of this Bread, or you would consider believing on Jesus the Christ, the Messiah as the source for eternal life and in so doing receive the portion offered to each one of us by our Heavenly Father.

Christmas Truth - Day 1

Well it happened again this year, thankfully. It has happened every year right around this time of year since I can remember and i've been happy to see it come each time. I am speaking of A Charlie Brown Christmas, of course. I watched a really nice cartoon with my wife and children, which is always time well spent. Something new occurred to me this year, however, that spurred my thinking and inspired me to a series of posts which will be forthcoming in the days leading up to Christmas day. The central theme of the cartoon was the real meaning of Christmas, something that is missed by the vast majority of Americans each and every year. Critical to answering the question about the real meaning of Christmas is truth.

Truth is correspondence. By that I mean that we know that something is true because it corresponds to reality. If I were to say that I am 6'-4" tall with dark hair, you would know that to be true by investigating those measurable attributes and comparing them to my statement. If my statements correspond to the real measurements, then my statement is truthful. This is critical to those of us who are followers of Christ because we don't follow His teaching because they make us feel good, or because we like most of what He says, or because our family always has; we follow Christ because we believe His teaching to be true. Due to that belief, we find the joy of the Lord that gives us comfort no matter the circumstance, we find the knowledge that the Lord will do what is right and can appreciate even the hard parts of His teaching, and we can appreciate the blessings that our progenitors have passed on to us.

So what is true this Christmas? Jesus says in John 14:6-7 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." Jesus is the truth. God has given us the privilege of providing the truth in the form of the Word that we can measure against reality. John 1:1-2 says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."

These two scriptures point to the first truth i'd like to bring out, and that is the doctrine of the Trinity. The more I study and think about the Trinity the more beautiful a concept it becomes in my heart. Jesus claims to be God, not a mere man, not just a great teacher, but God. We see from scripture the concept of the triune nature of God (namely God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit). The first four words in the Bible say "In the beginning God...". The reality is that this universe is finite, and no matter the circumstances surrounding it's propagation the beginning was a caused event. The explanation that best fits reality is that the caused event of creation is due to God, the uncaused agent. Also, creation (which includes mankind) is the choice of the Creator. Because God exists eternally in three persons, He didn't need to create us for company. We need not think too highly of ourselves. There was unity in diversity from eternity in the community of the Trinity. We are created in God's image so it comes as no surprise that each one of us desires to be a part of a community. Companionship, support groups, families, gatherings of all kinds reflect the reality of the Trinity in each of our image-bearing attributes. Loneliness is always considered a bad thing, because it opposes the truth of the community.

When Jesus was ready to begin His earthly ministry we read in Luke 4:14-21 that He went to the synagogue and opened the scroll of Isaiah and He read, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has annointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing'." Jesus said that He was the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the Messiah.

In the life of Christ (that is, His birth, life, death and resurrection) represents a fulfillment of several hundred Old Testaments prophecies. I thought it would be a good idea to bring just a few of these to bear at this time to remind us that Christianity is not just a fanciful notion, but the TRUTH. Lord willing, tomorrow I will post on the fulfilled prophecy of the family line of Jesse.