Disciples, Not Converts

If you have been to Three Rivers for any amount of time, you have probably noticed that we tend to do things a little differently than many traditional Southern Baptist churches here in the Deep South. One of the things you may have noticed is that we do not have an “altar call” or an “invitation” at the end of the sermon. This, of course, is intentional.

The altar call or public invitation is where the preacher tries to persuade his listeners to pray the “sinner’s prayer” and make a public profession of faith in Christ. Interestingly, godly preachers such as George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley never once gave an altar call. In fact, they did not even know what it was. The reason is that public invitation is a relatively new phenomenon that was made popular in the early 1800’s during the Second Great Awakening by Charles Finney’s frontier camp meetings. It’s worth noting that Charles Spurgeon, arguably one of the 19^th century’s greatest preachers, was adamantly opposed to the altar call. [1]

Now, let me say: there is nothing wrong, per se, with the altar call. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church “knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men.” (2 Cor 5:11) Our pleas to those who do not know Christ should be passionate and our speech persuasive. As Jude wrote, it is as though we are “snatching them out of the fire” (Jude 23).

But there are problems that have resulted in this method of evangelism. Historian Iain Murray wrote in his book Revival & Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism that opponents to the altar call “alleged that the call for a public ‘response’ confused an external act with an inward spiritual change.” Murray goes on to say that the altar call effectively “institute[d] a condition of salvation which Christ never appointed.”

Another problem (I believe) is that it has come to place too much emphasis on the beginning of a person’s walk with Christ. No doubt, beginnings are essential; every race has a starting gun, and every prize fight has an opening bell. But no one ever won a race by simply acknowledging the starting gun, and no prize fighter ever won a match by simply announcing at the opening bell that they are now a boxer. Jesus taught that “the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” (Matt 24:13)

The clear distinction is this: Jesus calls us to make disciples, not converts. Christ’s righteousness freely given to us as His students makes us righteous positionally in Him. It is based solely on the Person of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. But it cannot stop there. This righteousness will, of necessity, work itself out in practical acts. As Mitch Jolly (Three Rivers Community Church teaching pastor) has pointed out in his teaching through Hebrews 11, the men and women of faith, as the writer of Hebrews penned, by their faith gained God’s approval (Heb 11:2), and through their faith working itself out in practical action, obtained God’s testimony that they were righteous (Heb 11:4). In other words, faith works.

Now, this is a very narrow path, with steep slopes on both sides. So let me be clear: We have no righteousness, we are not righteous, and we cannot obtain righteousness apart from Christ. Even the faith that we have is a free gift of God (Eph 2:8, 9). We are not saved by anything we have done or can do, but we are saved to do good works in the name of Christ. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Eph 2:10)

On the other side, we must move away from this notion that we are “in” simply based on our correct doctrine, and we do not need to strive to gain God’s approval. Paul warns of those who are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:7). Again, as Mitch has said before, there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn God’s love; we can’t get Him to love us any more than He already does. The Apostle Paul makes it clear that in spite of the fact that while we were God’s enemies, helpless and hopeless sinners, God still went to the greatest extent of demonstrating His love for us by Christ dying for us (Rom 5:6-8).

So, just as a child (in a healthy, godly family) does nothing to earn love from his parents, so we do nothing to earn love from our heavenly Father. At the same time, the parents want their child to be pleasing to them, and the child gains their approval and is commended by his parents by doing things that make them happy. When the child does something that is not pleasing to his parents, it certainly does not mean that they will love their child any less. It simply means that they will not approve of or commend the child for what he has done.

We, too, must labor, striving according to God’s power within us (Col 1:29) and make it our ambition to be pleasing to Him (2 Cor 5:9) so that we will present ourselves approved to God as workmen who do not need to be ashamed (2 Tim 2:15); and like the men and women of faith in Hebrews 11, we will gain God’s approval and be commended by Him. Again, this faith that works itself out in action is begun by, continues through, and is completed in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross.

J. C. Ryle, English pastor and author during the 19^th century, wrote:

“Sanctification is the only sure mark of Gods’ election. The names and number of the elect are a secret thing, no doubt, which God has wisely kept in His own power, and not revealed to man. It is not given to us in this world to study the pages of the book of life, and see if our names are there. But if there is one thing clearly and plainly laid down about election, it is this — that elect men and women may be known and distinguished by holy lives.” (J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p. 12)

As we take communion together, let it remind us that we are to be men and women who are “known and distinguished by holy lives.” And our sanctification lies solely in the work of Jesus Christ, for “by [God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30)

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[1] An interesting article written by Douglas A. Sweeney and Mark C. Rogers on the history of the altar call can be found at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/thepastinthepresent/storybehind/walktheaisle.html

Solus Christus

“‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (James 4:6-10)

God Himself has promised grace to the humble, to those who are miserable and mourn and weep because they see the total depravity of their souls. But we will never realize this condition of humility unless we first realize that salvation is completely and utterly beyond our own efforts, will, and power and lies completely and utterly in the efforts, will and power of God alone. As long as a person believes that he can make even the smallest effort toward his salvation, he is not humbled before God. He is simply resting in a false hope of moralism.

One of the great deceptions of our generation is that we believe we are basically good. We hear it every day from Oprah and Osteen to the Dalai Lama: in order for us to achieve our potential, we must find the good within us and push out the negativity surrounding us. There is a glaring problem with this line of thinking: Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32). He did not come to call those who just need a little nudge in the right direction. He did not come to call those who are looking for a fix to their morality. He did not come to call those who needed a little help. Because at the heart of the belief in the inherent goodness of man is pride. But as we read, God is opposed to the proud in heart. (Psalms 138:6; Proverbs 3:34; Matthew 23:12; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5) And John declares, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)

Pastor and author Jared Wilson wrote,

“The message of the gospel is not ‘Behave!’

I believe many Christians in America would be satisfied if “the culture” just stopped using pornography and drugs and alcohol and stopped aborting babies and started “acting right.” As far as I can tell, that would be a Win.

But it’s not a win. A land where everybody acts right and is on their best behavior, where peace reigns and social decay is no more and the poor are helped and the hungry are fed, but Christ is not worshiped as the sole supreme satisfaction in all the universe, is a big fat FAIL.

There is a great difference between “being good” and the gospel. Some call it moralism. Moralism, in fact, blinds us from the gospel by giving us something of “the real thing” ensuring that we miss out on the true gospel all together. We must remember that Christ came first not to make bad people good but to make dead people live. If we forget that, our Christianity will turn out to be Christless.”

I think many Christians in America have been duped in this politically-charged atmosphere. If moral reform is all you are looking for, you do not know Jesus, nor do you understand the gospel.

As C.S. Lewis wrote: “We must not suppose that if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world.”

Dr. Michael Horton offers this insight in his book Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church

“Over half a century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia (the city where Barnhouse pastored), all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday…where Christ is not preached.”

Wilson goes on to say, “We are called to preach not moralism but Christ crucified, foolishness to American culture and a stumbling block to American Christians.”

By taking communion, we are identifying ourselves with Christ, and we confess that our hope lies wholly and completely on the Person and work of Jesus Christ alone. We must confess along with the hymnist:

Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s commands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

(Rock of Ages, written by Augustus Montague Toplady, published 1775)

Emancipation

On January 1, 1863, during the height of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order known as The Emancipation Proclamation. It declared that all persons held as slaves in the Confederate states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” This proclamation announced the freedom of over 3 million slaves in the ten states then in rebellion. But it would be another 2 years, 3 months, and 8 days on April 9, 1865 before General Robert E. Lee would surrender his Army of Northern Virginia at the McLean House in Appomattox, Virginia. And it wasn’t until December 1865 that slavery was made illegal everywhere in the U.S. by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

And so in the winter of 1863, millions of slaves were left in this perplexing situation. They had been declared “thenceforward and forever free” by the President of the United States, yet they remained in the land of their slavery.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus entered a synagogue in His hometown on the Sabbath and stood up to read. He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, where He found this passage:

“THE spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.”

He then handed the book back to the attendant and sat down. With every eye on him, Jesus then made this astonishing statement, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21)

Jesus uses the present perfect form of the verb here—“has been fulfilled”—meaning it is a completed task, a finished action with its effects stretching out in the future.

And so, in the spiritual sense, we find ourselves in the same perplexing circumstance as the slaves in the winter of 1863. Jesus has proclaimed our emancipation, yet we find ourselves still living in the land of slavery.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 1:4 that “[Christ] gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” While we are here on earth, we live in this present evil age, this land of slavery. Paul clearly does not mean that Christ is going to remove us from the world. Instead he means that Jesus will deliver us from the power of the evil one. In fact, that is precisely what Jesus prayed in John 17:15, “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”

God, in His omniscient sovereignty, has given Satan freedom to deceive and to enslave in this present evil age. 1 John 5:19 says that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” And in a very real sense, although our liberation has been declared, we still live in the land of our former slave-owners: sin and Satan.

But we have one clear distinction from the slaves of 1863. Although their emancipation had been proclaimed, at that time it was far from being secured. The conflagration was unresolved, and the outcome was still uncertain. The history books had yet to be written.

But when Jesus uses Isaiah 61, it was not just to read the first two verses, but I believe it was to call to mind the entire chapter, which foretells of a time when all of us who mourn in the kingdom will be comforted. We will be given “the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.” Our devastated cities will be rebuilt; our humiliation and shame will be traded for a double-portion of joy. We will feast on the wealth of the nations. We will be called priests of the Lord and ministers of our God. Everlasting joy will be ours because the Lord Himself has clothed us with the garments of salvation. And He will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

Here in the land of spiritual slavery, we labor and toil and must continue to struggle with our former slave-owners. But hear this, children of the Most High: your Deliverer is coming. He has promised, and He will never break His promise. The history book has already been written; Christ has written it with His blood.

“Don’t lose your faith just at the moment when your sufferings add to your witness, at the hour of Christ’s glory.” (Bob Blincoe, US Director of Frontiers)

The Lord’s Supper/Communion was instituted through the Passover, which commemorated the release of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. God has ordained it as a memorial to remind us of our former bondage to sin and the deliverance found in Jesus Christ.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1) Let us eat and drink to the true freedom that Christ purchased for us on the cross.

The God Who Sees

Wesleyan Methodist minister Samuel Chadwick wrote,

“We are moved by the act of God. Omniscience holds no conference. Infinite authority leaves no room for compromise. Eternal love offers no explanations. The LORD expects to be trusted. He disturbs us at will. Human arrangements are disregarded, family ties ignored, business claims put aside. We are never asked if it is convenient.” (from Spiritual Discipleship: Principles of Following Christ for Every Believer by J. Oswald Sanders, p. 30; emphasis mine)

Such is the situation we find Abraham in Genesis 22. It begins, “Now it came about…that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.””

By this time Abraham was well over 100 years old. He had begun this journey of faith when he was 75. He and his wife Sarah had been walking the ancient path of faith that already bore the footprints of Abel, Enoch, Noah, and others like them; a faith that is absolutely sure of what is hoped for and utterly convinced of what is not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1).

We cannot help but wonder, “Why now, God? Abraham is an old man. He has already shown his faithfulness to You. Leave him alone. Let him retire and finish his days in peace. And why Isaac? He is the very child You promised to them!” Yet as A. W. Tozer once said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”

This child, Isaac, had already brought Abraham and Sarah unspeakable joy; the one they had named “laughter” years ago as this old, grey-haired couple sat in their tent and held their newborn son, laughing until they cried, and then laughing at their tears.

Abraham, of course, had heard God speak many times in the past. His mind raced back to the time by the oaks of Mamre, when he and Sarah entertained their heavenly visitors. The LORD had come to reveal to him what He was about to do to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham was standing before the LORD, and yet he had this uncontrollable urge to negotiate with Him for the sake of his nephew Lot and his family. It was bold, to say the least. But it was as if God was inviting Abraham to plead with Him, to reason with Him so that the LORD could show that He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.

But there would be no pleading this time, no chance for negotiations. No, this was different. The emphatic words of the LORD offered no options. Instead they released a gut-wrenching pain: “your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac.” Nor would there be any second-guessing this time either as he and Sarah had done with Hagar. It would not be Ishmael, the child of the bondwoman, but Isaac, the child of the free woman, the child of promise (see Galatians 4:21-31).

Abraham recalled the stories he heard as a child of how God Himself performed the first sacrifice on behalf of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). Abraham understood that blood had to be spilled in order to cover their shame. And yet, though faithfully performing sacrifices to the LORD himself, Abraham knew there was something lacking. There was a sense deep within him that knew the blood of bulls and goats was never going to clear his conscience or make him perfect (Hebrews 9:9). Abraham couldn’t help but wonder, would the blood of his only begotten son (Hebrews 11:17) be the way? It seemed utterly contrary to the God he had followed all of these years and had come to know. But the words were undeniably clear: “your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac.” What Abraham did not know at the time was that a promised Son would, in fact, be required as the perfect sacrifice. Only not now…and not Isaac.

No sleep was to be found for Abraham that night. His mind raced with a thousand questions. Had he misunderstood God’s promise to him that Isaac would be his heir? (Genesis 15:4) His body drenched with sweat, Abraham arose, left his tent, and once again looked up at the stars. God’s words were as clear to him now as they were those many years ago, “So shall your descendents be.” (Genesis 15:5) That gift of faith that the LORD credited to him as righteousness began to burn with holy passion. And so, just before daybreak, Abraham was resolved: God must be able to raise people even from the dead. (Hebrews 11:19)

“So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took…Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went…” (Genesis 22:3)

The place where the sacrifice was to be performed was in the land of Moriah, a three days journey north. Even at his young age, Isaac had already become accustomed to his father doing seemingly strange things in the name of his God, this God whom Isaac was learning to trust. He remembers overhearing the servants saying that his father was like the wind blowing where it wishes. You hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from or where it is going (John 3:8). Yet each and every time, his father’s God had proved Himself faithful.

“Father?” “Here I am, my son.” “We have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham, choking back the tears, said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” God will provide. Elohim Yireh – literally “God sees.” Isaac had heard his father speak of God many times before. But this – Elohim Yireh – carried such a weight with it, something so terrifying yet so glorious, that it caused Isaac to shiver.

Few words were spoken as they reached the top of the mountain. Isaac had seen his father build altars before and helped with the task. All along, he wondered, “Where will we find a lamb?” After the altar was completed and the wood that Isaac had carried was laid on top, Abraham turned to his son, tears now tracing the lines down his dark, weathered face. For Isaac, the next few minutes became a blur; a surreal, terrible dream as his father whom he loved and knew loved him deeply bound his hands and feet and laid him on the pile of wood on top of the altar. He saw his father’s hand shaking as he picked up the knife, the same knife he watched his father carefully sharpen as they sat by the fire the night before. “I must make sure the sacrifice is as swift and painless as possible.” his father had explained the previous night.

As Abraham slowly raised the knife toward his son’s neck, “the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.” (Gen 22:11-13)

The father snatched his beloved son into his arms, weeping uncontrollably………. “Elohim Yireh…” Abraham whispered. “Elohim Yireh!” His heart now about to explode. “ELOHIM YIREH!” God sees! The tears of unspeakable sadness turned in an instant to radiant joy. “My Son, my only Son, whom I love, Isaac! God has provided!”

And with that, the LORD who sees opened ever so slightly the veil, allowing us to see a harbinger of something infinitely greater. Hudson Taylor once wrote, “Not infrequently our God brings His people into difficulties on purpose that they may come to know Him as they could not otherwise do.” Indeed, Abraham had come to know his God in a way like never before and had provided for his son an example of an unshakable foundation of faith. However, this heartrending experience was not for Abraham alone, but would be used to point countless thousands toward their salvation.

Centuries later, another Father would place wood on the back of His Son, His only Son, whom He loved, Jesus, and would lead Him up a hill to be sacrificed. Only this time there would be no angel to stay the hand at the last second and no ram caught in the thicket. This time, God would not spare His own Son, but instead deliver Him over for us all (Romans 8:32). Make no mistake, a substitution took place. God provided a Lamb, pure and spotless, to be sacrificed in your place, because“Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2) And then God proved, just as Abraham believed, that He had power over death and raised Jesus from the dead.

Honoring the Father

Michael Horton wrote in his book The Gospel-Driven Life,

The Bible is not a collection of timeless principles offering a gentle thought for the day. It is not a resource for our self-improvement. Rather, it is a dramatic story that unfolds from promise to fulfillment, with Christ at the center. Its focus is God and his action. God is not a supporting actor in our drama; it is the other way around. God does not exist to make sure that we are happy and fulfilled. Rather, we exist to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

This dramatic story in scripture tells us that mankind was created in the image of God. And throughout the Bible, we clearly see that mankind was created to glorify God and give Him the honor that is due His name. God’s law demanded that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Yet we have disfigured the image in which we were created. We have turned our affections elsewhere and have loved other things more. And in so doing, we have heaped shame upon ourselves. This is what sin is – it brings great dishonor to God by preferring lesser things rather than God and acting on those preferences. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Even the good we try to do, our “righteousness”, is as filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6; The Hebrew word used here refers to a woman’s bloody menstrual rags. Yes, it’s that bad.) Our thoughts and actions give telling evidence that we glorify what we enjoy most, and it isn’t God.

Throughout history, dishonoring a king was often times punishable by death. If dishonoring an earthly king brought the sentence of death, how much more do you think is deserved for dishonoring the one and only heavenly King of kings? This immense dishonor to God must be made right because God is supremely holy and supremely just.

We hear people talk about fairness and how unfair or unjust it is for God to condemn a seemingly innocent person to hell. But do we really want fairness from God? To be fair would mean for each and every one of us to get exactly what you or I deserve. To be fair, the punishment for offense to a supremely holy and eternal God would have to be commensurate with the crime. Therefore, the wages– what we have earned, what we deserve – for our sin is death, that is, eternal punishment and separation from God. (Romans 6:23)

God could have been fair and rightly displayed His justice and destroyed all of mankind for this great offense. But where would have been the Lord who was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness? (Exodus 34:6)

So, even before time began, God had a plan for the history of the world. That is what the Apostle Paul meant when he speaks of God’s “purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” (2 Timothy 1:9)

The bottom line is this: Man substituted himself for God; God, in the person of Jesus Christ, substituted Himself for man.

Isaiah 53: 4-6 says, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

What is so astounding about this substitution of Christ for sinners is that it was God’s idea. Jesus did not wrestle the whip from the hand of an angry God; he did not intrude on God’s plan to punish sinners. The Apostle Paul tells us that God reconciled us to Himself through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18). So, the triune Godhead of Father, Son, and Spirit in complete agreement planned for Christ to stand in the place of man and absorb every ounce of His wrath.

Isaiah goes on to say, “the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief” Another translation says “it was the will of the Lord to crush Him.”

So, what at first appears to be the ultimate disgrace by heaping all of our shame on Jesus and punishing to death the innocent and perfect Holy One in our place actually becomes the most glorious act of honor by demonstrating both God’s justice by punishing sin, and His mercy by providing payment for that sin in the form of Christ’s blood for all who believe, thereby restoring the God’s honor as well as the honor of all who believe for all eternity.

As we take the cup symbolizing Christ’s blood and the bread symbolizing Christ’s broken body, we honor God by proclaiming both God’s justice and His mercy in Christ. God poured out His wrath on Christ so that, through Christ, He could pour out His mercy on us.

God and Suffering

Earlier this week, a couple of college students were telling me about a friend who was wrestling with the idea of God and suffering. The ubiquitous question arose: “If God is good, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?”

So, in the small space I have here, I will fully explain the existence of evil and suffering in light of the sovereignty of God. No, of course that would be impossible. I do, however, want to try to shed some biblical light on the subject, and hopefully draw your heart and mind toward Jesus Christ in soul-satisfying worship.

The problem of evil and suffering in the world has existed in the mind of mankind for millennia, from the writing of Job (where many theologians place it chronologically during the book of Genesis) to modern-day philosophers and theologians. The term theodicy, which comes from the Greek and literally means “justifying God”, was coined in 1710 by German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. Theodicy is the attempt to provide a moral justification or reason for the existence of evil.

The problem of evil (from the human standpoint) calls into question three of God’s divine attributes: omnibenevolence (that is, that God is all-good), omniscience (all-knowing), and omnipotence (all-powerful).

Epicurus was a Greek philosopher around the 4^th century BC, whose philosophy was based on the theory that pain and pleasure (or the absence of pain) are the measure of evil and good. He is credited with the “Epicurean paradox”, which states, “Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? From whence then is evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

On the surface, that appears to be a very solid argument. Basically, either God is all-good and can’t control evil and suffering, or God is all-powerful and chooses not to control evil and suffering. But it can’t be both or neither. The problem with this position is that it makes two huge assumptions.

First, that we as humans have full knowledge of everything, including God’s ultimate plan and purpose for creation. When our daughter Grace was a toddler, she had bad allergies. Michelle and I would have to physically hold her down to give her medicine. In her limited knowledge, the medicine tasted terrible and was of absolutely no benefit to her. But Michelle and I knew that, although the medicine caused her a very small amount of suffering, it would benefit her in the long run.

The second assumption is that we as humans fully understand what “good” is. Let me give you an example of how fickle we can be with our perception of good. Many of you watched the premiere of Frozen Planet on the Discovery Channel. It is an astounding nature documentary about life in the coldest places of the world. One of the scenes showed this poor, helpless penguin waddling for its life across the beach as it is being chased by this big, bad seal. Most, I’m sure, were cheering for the penguin to escape the jaws of that wicked seal, who was bent on devouring that poor penguin. The next scene shows a poor, helpless seal being stalked and ultimately devoured by a pod of killer whales. The irony, of course, is that we felt sorry for that defenseless seal with those big, sad, brown eyes,  and yet we vilified the same type animal moments earlier. It was never an issue of good versus bad; the orcas and seals and penguins were only doing what God created them to do. Yet our perception of good and bad changed based on circumstances.

God is the One who defines good, not us. Jesus asked the rich, young ruler “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Luke 18:19) Jesus was not saying that He was not good. He was exposing the young man’s thinking to show that he really didn’t have a clue what or who was good.

When we see a man who is loving toward his wife and kids, honest, and a hard worker, we call him a ‘good’ man. His actions define who he is. Not so with God. He is the One who defines His actions. He defines good. Therefore, all that He does is good, because He is good. Psalm 145:9 & 17 says, “The LORD is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works. The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.” (See also Ps 100:5; 116:5; 136:1; Jer 33:11; Nah 1:7)

So when the Lord declares in Isaiah 45:4-7 “For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one, I have also called you [Cyrus the Great, the godless Persian king] by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity ; I am the LORD who does all these.”( “calamity”: Heb. ra; translated “evil” 94 times in NASB; See footnote [i])

Or when the prophet Amos says,  says, “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it?” (Amos 3:6) It is ultimately good in the eternal sense, because it is from God.

Consider the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis (Chapters 37 – 50), who was thrown into a pit by his jealous brothers, sold into slavery by them, falsely accused of rape, thrown into a prison and forgotten. Yet he was able to say to his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” (Genesis 50:20) God had a purpose in Joseph’s thirteen years of suffering that saved the lives of thousands from famine, and ultimately preserved an entire race of people.

So, if we are to believe Scripture, we must believe that God is both sovereign (omniscient and omnipotent) and good (omnibenevolent). Therefore, we must believe that God has sovereignly chosen to lift His hand to allow pain, suffering, and evil for a time. He has given Satan, who is called the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), permission to rule the world system. (Ephesians 2:2; 6:12; 1 John 5:19)

But of course, all of this philosophy is of no comfort the Somali mother who will watch today as her child dies from starvation. And it does little to assuage the survivors of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, who witnessed the mass murder of some 800,000 of their countrymen and the rape of some 300,000 of their women.

While in this life we will never fully understand the existence of evil and suffering, we must take comfort in this absolutely shocking truth: that, instead of turning His back on our suffering, God deliberately and willfully interposed Himself into the evil and suffering of this world. He did not turn His back, nor was He indifferent to our plight. Instead, God orchestrated the greatest evil of all time in the murder of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ who, according to the Apostle Peter, was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23; See also Acts 4:27-28 and Romans 8:32).  God has not left us alone in evil and suffering, but subjected Himself to it in the fullest – even to the point of death – to demonstrate His love toward us (Romans 5:8). With one heart and one mind, God the Father sent forth His only begotten, uncreated, and eternal Son Jesus Christ in the flesh; and Jesus willingly laid down His life to save us.

Now if a sovereign, omnipotent, and omniscient God would willingly subject Himself to human suffering and evil, then there must be a purpose. Our human minds and emotions cannot possibly fathom the depths to which God went to redeem His people. I believe we will spend an eternity plumbing those depths.

Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in his epic novel The Brothers Karamazov,

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.

At the end of the age, all of creation – both humans and angels – will have a collective “ah-ha” moment when Jesus Christ reveals Himself in the fullness of His glory. We all will witness first-hand the justice and mercy of God that was meted out on the Cross. God’s sovereign, manifold wisdom and eternal purpose will be fully revealed, and then we will understand. All the evils and pain in this world will only serve to magnify the ineffable glory of God. We will declare along with Job, “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth.” (Job 40:4) Then as Revelation 6:13 reveals, “every created thing which is in heaven [including angels, rulers, authorities, and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies] and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them [including killer whales, seals, and penguins], will say, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”

Some will do this with immeasurable and eternal regret, but those who have been adopted as children of God will sing the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You, For Your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Revelation 15:3)

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[i] Calamity is the better translation here, as God did not “create” evil. Many argue that evil is not some thing that was created, but it is the absence of some thing, namely good. St. Augustine of Hippo believed that evil was a privation, that is, a lack or absence of good. Scientists do not measure darkness or cold because they are not measureable, only light and heat are. Therefore, darkness and cold are the absence of light and heat. In the same way, evil is only privatio boni – the absence of good.

Freed from Fear

Fear…I’m sure some of us felt a little of it as the storms blew through last Friday. There are, of course, some healthy fears, like what a parent feels when their toddler is running toward a busy street. God gives us those times of a heightened sense of awareness to cause us to spring into action.

Throughout Scripture we learn that the healthiest of all fears is the fear of the Lord. King Solomon tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). Over and over, we are instructed to fear the Lord (i.e., Leviticus 25:17; Deuteronomy 6:1-2, 24; Joshua 4:23-24; Psalm 33:8; 34:9; Proverbs 3:7; 24:21). Yet at the same time, God Himself tells us not to fear.

To Abram God says, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you” Genesis 15:1

To Isaac He says, “I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you.” Genesis 26:24

And to Joshua, the Lord says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

There is no contradiction here. I think one of the clearest descriptions comes in Psalm 2:11 “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” We approach a holy and awesome God with joyful trembling, because He is the only Person or thing that we should fear. As Mr. Beaver in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia rightly explained: “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver.”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

But we, as sinful, fallen creatures, fear many things other than God. The greatest fear to mankind may be the fear of death. And Jesus Christ came to remove even that fear. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 2:14-15:

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same,” What that simply means is that Jesus physically became a human being just like you and me. This is crucial to our doctrine because, of course, God cannot die. So He took on flesh and blood in order to be able to physically die.

“[So Christ shared in our flesh and blood] that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

Now, I want us to look closely at that phrase, “him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” When the writer says that Satan has the power of death, he does not mean that he has the ability to kill whomever he chooses. God has not given him that ability. Scripture is very clear that the power of life and death lies solely in the hands of God alone.

God says in Deuteronomy 32:39, “See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life.”

1 Samuel 2:6 says, “The LORD kills and makes alive”

And in Revelation 1:18, Jesus makes clear that He is the One who holds the keys of death and Hades.

Satan does not have unbridled control over anything. Everything that Satan does, he must ask permission from the Father. (see Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; Luke 22:31). What Satan has is the ability to tempt and to accuse. Revelation 12:10 calls him the accuser of our brethren who accuses them before our God day and night.

What does he accuse us of? He continually brings before God our sins, our shortcomings, our falling short of the glory of God. He knows that the wages of sin is death; the just penalty for our sins is eternal separation from God. So he brings the evidence of our sins before God to try to demand penalty for those sins, namely death. That is how he held the power of death.

But Christ conquered sin and death by dying and being raised to life, thus rendering Satan powerless. But not only does He render Satan powerless, He removes his ability to effectively accuse us, thereby freeing us from slavery to sin and the fear of death.

Therefore, we no longer fear death because Christ has removed the punishment of death. “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56), and Christ has removed them both by conquering sin and fulfilling the law on our behalf.

As we take the elements together, we take them with joyful trembling, knowing that Christ Jesus, in His flesh, removed the fear of death, because “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)

Saving Us from Ourselves

I have been alive now for 42 years; 22 of those years as a husband, 20 as a father, and going on 10 years as a pastor. Through all these years of life experience and observation – especially of myself – it is becoming increasingly clear to me that the essence of sin is self-centeredness. Martin Luther used the Latin term incurvatus in se which means “to be curved inward on oneself” throughout his lectures on Romans to describe the essence of the sinful human nature. So, regardless of whether it is pride or self-loathing, the focus remains inward toward oneself.

This self-centeredness is not only acknowledged but is set as the goal of secular humanist psychology. From the idea of self-actualization introduced by Goldstein and popularized by Maslow to Nietzsche’s Übermensch, this psychology preaches – and make no mistake, it is preaching – that the greatest goal is to look inside oneself to find one’s meaning and to achieve one’s greatest potential.

We, of course, should expect nothing less from secular humanist psychology, because if the basic belief is that there is nothing beyond us, then it stands to reason that there is nowhere to look except inward. The problem is that this doctrine of self as the ultimate goal has crept into the teachings of those who would call themselves Christians. Thus we see the rise of the so-called prosperity gospel and we hear sermon after sermon of pop psychology self-improvement with a little Jesus mixed in for good measure.

The truth remains, however, that we are, as Augustine put it, a massa peccati – a “mess of sin.” We are spiritually bankrupt by sin. It is therefore utterly crucial to understand Romans 3:23 in its context. If we are careless with the Scriptures, it is easy to read “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” to mean that we “fall short” or “miss the mark” because we are immoral or bad people. Therefore, the proper remedy is to make bad people good; to clean them up. And tragically most people, including many who would call themselves Christian, have completely missed the gospel by believing that its aim is moral reform.

C.S. Lewis wrote,

“We must not suppose that if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world.”

The aim of the gospel is not moral reformation – to make bad people good. That is a false gospel, which is just another manifestation of incurvatus in se because the focus still remains inward toward ourselves. No; Christ Jesus did not come first to make bad people good. He came to raise the spiritually dead to life.

When Paul says we have fallen short of God’s glory, he means that we have been created to revel in the glory of God, to make much of Him and glorify Him. But sin has caused us to turn away from God’s glory and to seek our own. It makes us live our lives incurvatus in se. As John Piper wrote, “We have turned our back to the breathtaking beauty of God and fallen in love with our shadow.”

The gospel is that Christ came to turn our deadly focus from ourselves to the live-giving focus on the glory of God. Paul summed up the gospel when he wrote that “[Christ] died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)

In other words, Christ died to save us from ourselves so that we would no longer fall short of our created purpose to glorify God.

As we take communion together, let us remember that through Christ’s spilled blood and broken body, we are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; a justification that is not by moralism but by faith apart from our works to the glory of God. (Romans 3:21-28)

Remember the Sabbath?

A while back, my son and his friend were studying scripture together and a question came up: Why are there certain laws in the Law of Moses that we do not have to keep and other that we do?

Now, I am not going to attempt to fully explain the purpose of the Law in this one blog post. But as a study note: when you are reading the Old Testament, it is important to keep something in mind: What was the purpose of the Law? Paul tells the Romans it was to show us what sin is (Romans 7:7), and he tells the Galatians that it served as our tutor to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).

A Pharisee challenged Jesus with this question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

In other words, Jesus was saying they are all the greatest commandment because He just summed up the Ten Commandments. The first four deal with loving the Lord with all that we are, and the last six deal with loving our neighbors. Jesus was looking past the mere letter of the Law to the very Spirit of the Law.

I would like to focus on one in particular. Have you ever wondered about the Fourth Command regarding the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments? (Exodus 20:1-17) All of the other commandments are easily understood in our context

• No other gods
• No idols
• Don’t use God’s name in a senseless or foolish way
• Honor father and mother
• Don’t murder
• Don’t commit adultery
• Don’t steal
• Don’t lie
• Don’t jealously desire anything that belongs to someone else

But what about the Sabbath? Is it Saturday?  Should we be keeping it from sunset to sunset? (Leviticus 23:32) Is it wrong to do work? Is God angry with us if we meet on Sunday and not Saturday, or if we paint our house or mow our lawn on the Sabbath?

Obviously, the Sabbath was very important to God; it made His Top Ten list. People were to be executed for not observing the Sabbath in the Old Testament (Exodus 31:14).

How do we reconcile that with what Paul instructs the Colossian church: “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”? (Colossians 2:16-17) We need to understand that these things that Paul lists were not related to some pagan religious festivals. He was referring to observances required by the Law of Moses. And he specifically mentions the Sabbath.

Again, we have to remember that the Law was made to point us to Christ. The Law is not the final statement; it is not the end. Instead, Christ Himself is the end (the goal) of the Law. (Romans 10:4) And as the writer of Hebrews says, the Law “has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things.” (Hebrews 10:1)

The Sabbath was established as a reminder that after six days of creating the heaven and the earth, God rested on the seventh day (Exodus 20:8-11). According to W.E. Vine, the doubled b in the Hebrew word shabath “has an intensive force, implying a complete cessation or a making to cease, probably the former. The idea is not that of relaxation or refreshment, but of cessation from activity.” (W.E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, p.542) The Sabbath was not established as a day of worship, per se, but of cessation from activity.

The writer of Hebrews spoke of the Israelite generation that wondered in the wilderness for 40 years and said that they were not able to enter into God’s rest because of their unbelief. That is crucial to understand: Was it because of their disobedience? No; it was because of their unbelief. They did not believe that God would give them rest, therefore God did not give them rest. Their unbelief brought about their disobedience.

“Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest…For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.” (Hebrews 4:1-2, 8)

Remember that the Law – specifically in this case the Sabbath – was just a mere shadow of the things to come, but the reality of the Sabbath is found in Christ. This Sabbath – this complete cessation of work – is meant to point us to Christ.

The author of Hebrews goes on to write: “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:9-11)

Rest…Rest from what? It is rest “from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14) and points to our ultimate rest in Christ. (Revelation 14:13) So the Fourth Commandment had a shadow of the good things to come. It was written to lead us to Jesus Christ who came to bring us true rest. Or more accurately, Jesus Christ is our Sabbath day of rest. Therefore, let us indeed remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.

Now we can better understand Jesus’ words: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)

At the same time, we must heed Paul’s words, “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord…” (Romans 14:5-6a; see all of Romans 14 for context). So let us be careful to not condemn a person who, in faith, chooses to dedicate Sunday solely to praying, singing, and reading the Word, as long as that person understands that God does not require the observance of a certain day for merit before Him. Nor let us condemn the one who chooses to mow his lawn, who, in faith, knows that his acceptance before God is not based on whether or not he regards a particular day above another. But let each person be convinced in his own heart that God is not angry with the other for acting in faith.

The Treasure of Christ

Acting on a suggestion by a fellow prospector, George Carmack, along with his Native American wife Kate, her brother Skookum Jim and their nephew Dawson Charlie set out for Rabbit Creek, (later renamed Bonanza Creek after the gold discovered there), a tributary of the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory of Canada. On August 16, 1896, the party found huge quantities of gold along the river. Carmack quickly staked claims and registered them the next day at the police post located nearby at the mouth of the Fortymile River.

News of the discovery spread quickly among the prospectors throughout the Yukon River valley. However, due to its remote location and the onset of winter, the outside world was largely unaware of the immense deposits of gold being discovered. It wasn’t until ten months later in June of 1897 that boats ladened with freshly mined gold left the area.

On July 15, some of the first prospectors arrived in San Francisco and two days later news reached Seattle. Newspapers reported that as much as what would be the modern-day equivalent of $1 billion in gold had arrived, although even that turned out to be an underestimate. And thus, the Klondike Stampede began.

It is estimated that over 100,000 people headed for the Yukon gold fields. Few of these individuals had any experience in mining, with most quitting their jobs as clerks, salesmen, streetcar drivers, and policemen. They were simply blinded by the Yukon’s golden opportunity.

Arriving at the Alaskan ports of Skagway or Dyea marked the real beginning of the arduous journey to the gold fields some 600 miles north. The White and Chilkoot Passes were the only two northbound passages through the southern Alaskan mountain range. The Chilkoot Pass rose some 3,500 feet, and the trekkers had to carry themselves up 1,500 stairs dubbed the “Golden Steps” carved out of the ice and snow. Many had no clue what they were in for. In addition to the year’s supply of provisions weighing over 1,000 pounds that were required by the Canadian authorities, some brought peculiar items such as bicycles and gramophones. One intrepid party carried all the parts required to build a 40-ton steamboat. A piano was even hoisted over the mountain pass.

As many as 30 to 40 roundtrips over the pass were required in order to get all of their supplies across. Keep in mind that there were no Kelty backpacks, no Patagonia jackets, no Black Diamond climbing gear. The equipment was crude and bulky by today’s standards.

One would-be prospector wrote, “My feet are sore. My heals are blistered. My legs, sore and lame. My hands, neck, and shoulders are chafed from rope. But, boys, don’t think I’m discouraged; there’s a glimmer of gold in the distance.”

Once they finally cleared the pass with all of their supplies, they still faced a dangerous five-day journey to Dawson City up the Yukon River in makeshift rafts and boats that became known as “floating coffins.”

Almost 70 feet of snow fell that winter. Numerous people died and thousands turned back. Of the 100,000 gold-seekers, only 30,000 to 40,000 eventually reached the gold fields, and only half of those became prospectors. Of these, fewer than 4,000 struck gold, and only a handful actually became rich.

Nevertheless, that small settlement at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers near the Arctic Circle had the highest concentration of millionaires in the entire world. And yet they had nothing to spend it on. They failed to realize that all the money in the world would ultimately buy them nothing. Because today, not a single one of them has in their possession even a fleck of gold dust that they risked everything for.

Some would say they were too greedy or maybe just too ambitious. But I would argue it’s not that their ambition and drive for riches were excessive. Instead their drive and ambition were misdirected; their hearts were in the wrong place. Jesus did, in fact, instruct us to store up for ourselves treasures. But He said to store them in heaven… for where our treasure is, that’s where our heart will be. (Matthew 6:20-21)

God has placed in every man’s heart passion, ambition, and a drive for something beyond ourselves. C.S. Lewis wrote of this God-given drive, this holy ambition when he said: “We long for more, and the promise of God is that there is more beyond us, and still more awaiting us. More to delight us than we will ever exhaust, for the Fountainhead of Joy is our inexhaustible God.”

You see, when God appeared to Abram and said, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great” (Genesis 15:1), He wasn’t simply talking about Abram’s reward being the promise of a son or even the land promised to him. We know this because the writer of Hebrews said that Abraham “died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance.” (see Hebrews 11:13-16) No. God was speaking the gospel to Abram (see Galatians 3:8)—the good news that Jesus Himself would be Abraham’s reward. Christ would be his treasure.

We find our greatest joy in that which we treasure. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

When our eyes are fixated on our pursuit of joy in lesser treasures like money, sex, or fame, we end up building bigger barns and consuming more and more, yet we are never satisfied because they are not what we are made for (Luke 12:16-21).

J. Campbell White once said, “Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ’s purpose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure, and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans. The men who are putting everything into Christ’s undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards.” (J. Campbell White, secretary, Laymen’s Missionary Movement, 1909)

So let us do crazy things like carrying a 40-ton steamer over a mountain for the kingdom. Or better yet, by faith, for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom may we say to that mountain, “Be taken up and cast into the sea.” (Mark 11:23).

As we take communion together, let us remember Jesus willingly poured out His blood on the cross so that He could open the eyes of our sin-blinded souls, and show us that our longing for more is in reality a longing for Him, and our joy in Him is complete because He is our greatest treasure.