A New Year Dawns

 Each year ends.  The calendar marches closer and closer to December 31.  The clock on December 31 draws closer and closer to midnight.  Time just keeps moving and we continue to draw closer to every deadline we face.  We never move further from a deadline - unless it is a deadline already failed.  During the ending, we anticipate the beginning.  This pattern of ending and beginning is in one sense one we were prepared for.  There was evening and morning day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, and even on day seven.  We were prepared for the ending of one day and the beginning of another.  But each of these were meant to be enjoyed with perfect harmony with each other, with God, and with the creation in which man and woman lived.

In another very different sense, this pattern reminds us of something that is out of the pattern of what God intended for us.  A day ending is not really all that disheartening, a week ending either - we know tomorrow is another day and next week is another week.  What we do have to consider now, this side of sin, is that we are not guaranteed tomorrow.  We are not guaranteed next week, and each year that passes draws us that much closer to the life expectancy that we are steadily approaching.  Like each year, we too will die.  And this definite end is concerning to us.  

And yet we seldom take time to consider it.  We know that it is coming.  We know that we have limited time to use and yet we use it so poorly.  Would you stop today and consider that a years end is a reminder of a life's end and that your life's end approaches?  In point of fact, you do not know if you will make it to see the year's end.  So what will you do with your time today?  May I suggest that you first ensure that you are at peace with your Creator - the One who created you for more than anticipating your end and has made it possible for you to live without end through the work of His Son Jesus Christ?  He died for you so that you could live eternally.  So that when your time on this earth ends that you would live in His presence for ever more.  A glorious thought that is worth consideration in this moment.  And the next.  And the one that follows.  Tick.  Tock.  

A proper order of things

 We had our annual children's Christmas play last Sunday.  This year's story focused on the shepherds out in their field.  As I was reading through this text, I noticed something interesting in a very familiar part of the story.  The angels say in Luke 2:14, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." (NASB)

What I noticed is the order.  The angels are announcing to the shepherds that a Savior has been born to them, but notice the order when the angel choir sings:

    1. Glory to God - the angels begin by singing that God is honored and glorified in the work of God to bring the Savior.  So often we make ourselves the center of the Christmas story - we say things that sound an awful lot like Jesus came to earth to save us.  In a sense that is true, but that sense is secondary to His primary purpose - He came to glorify the Father.  He came to bring glory to the triune God.  It is interesting how often the Scriptures talk about this, but so often we forget.

    2. Peace among men - on earth there is to be something accomplished too - namely that men would be at peace with each other - this only happens through the work of God in Christ.  But this is not primary.  It is secondary to the glory of God.  This one cannot happen without the former.  

I wonder what would happen if we got our order correct too - that is that we placed the glory of God in our lives first and then what benefit we received.  We would be doing things far more biblically and we would be living our lives in the way that God intended us to live.  May God help us to live for His glory!

Don't fall for the traps

 Christmas time is here.  I want to remind us of a few traps that sometimes we can fall into when this time arrives.  It would be better for us to avoid these traps and counter them with the solid path that God lays out for us in His Word.

Trap 1 - the trap of all that glitters.

This trap tends to draw us in and make us think that we do not have enough.  It makes us think that we need more.  The commercials remind us of how much we wanted that new car, or new computer, or new . . .Our neighbors remind us because we see these things in their drive way and through their windows.  We want more.  The way to counter this trap is a simple word, but a hard concept - contentment.  We need to recognize that we have all that we need in Christ and it is already provided for us and given to us.

Trap 2 - the trap of a schedule that is full.

This time of year seems more and more busy each year.  There are holiday parties to go to and to host.  There are work parties and family parties.  There are Christmas concerts and holiday shopping and it never seems like there is enough time in the day to get it all done.  Sometimes this trap is harder to avoid, but the secret is to prioritize.  Don't make a list of all things you have to do and order those - instead prioritize reminders of Christ - the real reason for the season.  

Trap 3 - the trap of an incomplete focus.

 This trap is very subtle.  We put out our manger scenes for décor, we go to church and we think that we are serving Christ even more this time of year because it is His holiday after all.  The solution is to focus on Christ YEAR ROUND, and not just in these moments.  Yes, we are celebrating His birth, but He is to be celebrated each moment of each day for all that He has done for us.

So this year, avoid these traps and serve our Savior, come to earth to make us new!

Busy, O So Busy

 I wonder sometimes how often we stop and take time to actually think about what we are doing and the priority of what we are doing.  Often times, especially around the holidays, we get so very busy.  We have extra parties to attend and maybe even plan.  We have extra shopping to do.  Then there is the decorating, the food preparation, the school projects.   And in all of this everyone else seems to be busy too, so the stores we are shopping at seem extra packed.  The supplies for the cooking is limited because everyone else is making the same things we are.  And it all adds up to a lot of stress.  

What tends to happen when we get busy is that we start to let go some of the things that we deem are not as important.  This is a good thing to do to avoid stress.  But I am afraid that too often we let the things go that are actually the most important.  For instance, if I have to choose between planning the party or reading my Bible what will I most likely choose?  What about if I have to choose between prayer or doing the extra shopping?  What about if I have to choose between taking a moment to talk to my neighbor over making that extra batch of cookies, which will I choose?  In each of these cases the things listed first are commanded by God and essential for our lives as believers.  The latter is always pressing but not commanded and not essential for our well-being.  But which do we tend to prioritize?  I think I could make this case with numerous examples.  We choose the extracurriculars over church because we paid for them.  We choose family gatherings rather than church gatherings because we feel more obligated to them.  And we choose the celebrations over the reason that we celebrate far too often.  

So this year - commit to yourself that you will strive to prioritize the things that really matter.  And remember that if you bake less cookies, have one less party that you go to, or even buy less presents, your life will be just fine by December 26.  I wonder the impact though of neglecting the Word of God, omitting your conversation with God, and setting aside the people of God.  I wonder?

Thanksgiving

 Sometimes we define our lives by the things that are coming up.  It hits the end of October and the beginning of November and I tend to start thinking about Thanksgiving.  Each year I am reminded of how sad it is that we need a reminder to be thankful.  We (Christians) of all people should be thankful because our God commands it.  We are to give thanks in everything.  We are to give thanks for our blessings.  We are to give thanks even when facing hardship.  We are to be a thankful and grateful people.  And so I thought I would just share some of the things for which I am thankful to God.

I am thankful for my family.

I am thankful for my home.  My blankets.  My bed.  My pillows.  

I am thankful for the grace of God extended to sinners. 

I am thankful for the patience of my God, my wife, my parents, my children, my church, my deacons.  

I am thankful for the people I get to serve my Savior alongside.

I am thankful for those who take the time to tell me how the Word of God has impacted them.

I am thankful for those who serve and have served my children in various ministries as they are growing up.

I am thankful for my wife and her tireless work to train our children.

I am thankful for my in-laws and their willingness to accept me into their family.  

I am thankful for the Word of God and that it never fails.  

I am thankful for the chance to proclaim the Word of God each Sunday.

I wonder. . . what are you thankful for today?

The Goodness of God

 "God is so good.  God is so good.  God is so good, He's so good to me."  These are the words of a song from a decade or two or three ago.  They are a statement of fact.  Have you ever considered how the absence of absolute truth has impacted your life?  Allow me to demonstrate what I mean.  Is the fact that God is good absolute?  I think that most of us who believe in Christ Jesus and understand the Scriptures would say that God is good all the time.  And yet our experience of this objective reality tends to emphasize the subjective rather than the objective.  We do not always feel as though God is good because our circumstances sometimes are hard and painful and we have a harder time saying that God is good in the midst of the pain.  

So which is the foundation for our belief?  The objective reality or the subjective experience of life?  Far too often we emphasize the latter and we ignore the objective reality.  Instead we ought to look to God and His Word to define our objective reality and conform our feelings to that which is true instead of conforming our beliefs to that which we feel.  

Definitions

 I read an article recently that quoted a sermon from Andy Stanley in which he essentially said that Jesus did not draw lines but inclusive circles and that it was his goal to do the same as a church.  Now about the specifics of the argument that he was making I will for the purposes of this blog remain silent.  However I want to point out something with regards to this type of thinking that is flat out wrong.  

The thinking goes, Jesus was all welcoming - he did not cause trouble and he welcomed everybody.  He did not draw lines, he drew circles.  The problem with this thinking is at least two-fold:

1. It begins with the subject and not objective truth.  It is as if Jesus is drawing large circles around an individual to include them in the kingdom of God.  "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me."  This is not a circle that begins with me and is large enough to include many.  It is a circle that has a center.  That center is the object by which the circle is defined.  A circle with no center is not a circle.  

2. It forgets that a circle has a radius.  Not only must the center be defined, but there is a distance at which the circle ends.  This radius starts from the center and radiates out so that each part of the circle is clearly defined.  You are in the circle or outside the circle based on the radius.  Therefore the objective center is not only critical, but the distance allowed between the center that defines the circle and being far enough outside the radius that you are no longer in the circle.  

So if we think in terms of circles, I think we are still ok - so long as we define our circles properly.  There is a certain freedom we have to be in different places, but if we have a different center or we are outside of what the radius is, we are no longer a part of the circle.  A circle, like many other illustrations, sounds good and all inclusive, but in order to be all inclusive we either have to make the radius so large that it is essentially meaningless or we have to abdicate the center.  I am willing to do neither.  Therefore I will gladly say that the offer of the gospel is for everyone.  But to belong to the circle of those who are children of God by the Bible is quite clear about both the center and the radius.  

Mission

 Our Missions Emphasis Sunday is coming up at our church in a few weeks.  We take this time to remember twice a year the work that God is doing around the world with our ministry partners.  Often times in our church life we however face a danger.  We associate missions - the work that other people are doing around the world in cultures most of us will never see - with mission - the work that God as called us to do.  When we do this, we assume that our mission - as individuals and even as a church - is equivalent with missions.  And thus, when we participate in missions are fulfilling our mission.  The problem is that this is not the case.  God does not simply tell his disciples to go and share the good news of the gospel with as many people around the world as possible.  In fact, there are more instructions on how to be the local church in the New Testament then there are instructions on missions work.  By example, Paul did missions work, but they were chosen by God and sent by the church for this work and Paul does not at any point say to local churches that their pastors, leaders, or constituents ought to do the same work he was doing.  

This means we each ought to find the mission that God has called us to in order to help fulfil His Mission for the world.  Not all of us will be called to go to another culture, but all of us are called to proclaim the gospel in the place that God has placed us.  Not all of us are called to go, but all of us are called to be faithful at all times.  We all have commands that we ought to be following - clear commands of Scripture to interact with ourselves, with our fellow believers and with the lost world around us.  

Do you think of mission and immediately think of a missionary, or do you think of mission and consider your own purpose and goals in life and how those are conformed to the plan that God has for you?

Back to School

 School has started up again.  Each year around this time I focus the blog on this topic as it is a critical time in the life of our young people.  As they grow and develop and learn of the world around them, we need to take care to ensure that they have a proper biblical foundation for understanding how to think about the world.  I am afraid that for too long we have been so worried about teaching them to think the right things and how to avoid the wrong things that we have forgotten that we need to teach them to think.  

When we begin to teach them to think there are a few beginning steps.  First we should teach them that they cannot think just any ole way they like.  The Bible demands that we think through its lenses and Christ demands that we have the mind that He has.  Thought then, as well as behavior, needs to be brought into conformity with Christ and His Word!  Secondly, thought is not something that is internal, it is foundational.  We act because of how we think.  We behave because of how we think.  How we think and what we think are foundational acts.  Therefore we should arguably take more care to consider how and what we think that what we do.  Third (but certainly not final), not all ways of thinking are created equal.  When things do not conform to Christ and His Word, and when things cause us to behave in a way that is inconsistent with Christ and His will, we need to change our patterns of thinking.  

So send your kids to school thoughtfully.  Make sure they are thinking well!

Summer Fun

 As it nears the end of summer a recurring question keeps appearing at our house:  did we do enough fun things during the summer?  It does not always seem to matter that we have not had only one free weekend where we had nothing going on, it always seems like we could have done more.  

I think sometimes that we look at our Christian life this way too.  No matter how much we do - no matter how much we read the Bible, or pray or serve we are always seemingly looking to answer the question, "Was it enough?"  This is not how grace works and reveals a fundamental flaw to our understanding of our relationship with God.  There can be no question of if it is enough unless the works that we do actually do something in our relationship with God.  And they cannot.  Because the work of Christ has already been done and it is sufficient.  Therefore our works are done not out of a sense of obligation but in gratitude.  In that sense the question, "Am I grateful enough?" would be a valid one.  There are times I know I am living out of step with the Spirit of God and it can boil down to a lack of gratitude for what Christ has accomplished for me.  But gratitude that is measured is also not true gratitude.  This is of course not to say that the things we do are meaningless and do not matter at all.  That is not at all true.  Nor is it to say that we should not strive to read our Bibles, pray, serve etc.  We should.  But what we should stop doing is preaching grace but practicing a works based way of living.  What we should do is start to be willing to trust in the grace shown us by God Himself and realize that if He can show us grace, perhaps we should stop asking the question that measures these things according to a standard that He says we have already completed in Christ!

Be sure to read your Bible

 I was thinking today about the importance of Bible reading.  There are obviously many reasons to read your Bible.  It is God's revealed Word to us.  God commands us to meditate on it.  It is there to instruct us, correct us, train us, equip us.  It is encouraging and exhorting.  It is sharper than a two-edged sword and will reveal our thoughts and intentions.  It is a mirror that helps us to see ourselves rightly.  But as I was thinking, I wonder how often we think about the Bible as a means to correct our perspective on history?

I think that we all have a tendency to view our world as being the worst it has ever been.  We see moral decay and decline and we think that we have it worse than all those who have gone before us.  I find myself doing this even recently with our young people - thinking that they have it harder than all those generations that have gone before them.  In some ways this might be true, but the Bible reminds us that our world is not unique in its rebellion against God.  Which is harder, our world today or the open pluralism and sexuality that was present in the world into which the epistles were written?  Which is worse, the violence and murder today, or the first family in which brother killed brother?  Which is worse, the blatant violation of God's created order for the family or Lot's daughter's, Noah's son Ham, Jacob and Esau, and the many other stories of this family order being upended.

What all of this does for us is remind us that we are not alone, and God is still in charge over it all.  As He has been for all of time He is today.  He reigns on the throne and has promised to us and to those that came before us that there is coming a day when He will make all things right.  Read your Bible and allow it to adjust your perspective!

Independance

 We as a culture value our independence.  It is built into our national heritage.  We after all just celebrated independence day.  We don't want to be dependent upon any one, for our oil, for our electric, for just about anything we want to be able to do it ourselves.  We have been told from the time that we are very young that we are to learn to do things on our own.  

I think that I want to understand that instead of independence, we need to learn appropriate levels of dependence in our lives.  What do I mean by that?

1.  We are never truly independent because we are created by God and therefore, by virtue of creation alone (but this is not the only reason we are dependent upon God), we are dependent creatures.  We cannot ever claim total independence without denying a practical and functional part of our identity.  No matter how hard we strive to do it alone, we cannot for we rely on God.

2. We are never truly independent because we are created by God for relationships with each other.  This started in the garden with husband and wife.  It was not good for man to be alone.  God created us in His image, male and female -designed for relationship.  He called His people into relationship with Himself and promised Abram many children.  He has given us the church body.  We are not, nor have we ever really been, independent. 

3. We are never truly independent because we were created by God for service.  This by necessity involves other people.  We were never designed to be an island to ourselves, nor even a grouping of like-minded people on a larger island.  Instead, we were designed to fill the earth and subdue it for the glory of God.  Post-fall this involves evangelism and taking the glory of the gospel to the lost.  We were tasked with this by our Savior and so we are not independent.  

I could go on.  We are given other tasks to complete for the benefit of God and others. We are told to be encouraged and served in our relationships with others as we serve and encourage them.  We are to be connected in prayer, in unity, in fellowship, under the Word, under the authority of the church, and I could keep going.  

Independence is a word that should rarely enter our mouths as believers.  We are dependent on God and upon each other!

Rest

 I think that we underemphasize the importance of rest.  I might be thinking about this more since I just returned from vacation, but I really think it is true.  Our culture seems to emphasize work.  We work for money, we work on ourselves, we work on our relationships, we work to make the world a better place.  We work, work, work and then in a rare moment of pause for reflection - maybe while sitting in traffic on our way to work, we think about how tired we are and then we get to work and forget all about that momentary pause.  We work to make our kids life better, we work to give them all the opportunities they ask for, we work to serve our church.  And then we take a moment - maybe when we get sick - to think about the fact that we seem to have lost time for things like reading the Bible.  But then we get better and go back to work.  We work on making our house and life more presentable to others, we work to get better at Bible reading, we work on making a fuller prayer list.  And then we take a break in line at the store because the cashier is slow and we think about how nice it would be if we could just take a small break from it all.

I think this is why the Scriptures record rest from the beginning to the end.  (see Genesis and Hebrews for some really good detail on this)  I think this is why the Bible says that Jesus took time to rest and pray.  I think that this is why God gave in the law a commandment to rest, one day out of seven (and that is just the beginning - look at the law of Jubilee for even more rest!)  

I wonder if we will take a moment to consider the importance of rest for worship.  Will you stop for a moment this week and consider how to add rest to your work schedule?  Maybe take a moment to work on resting!

I am holy

 With a blog title like this it sounds like I am bragging.  I want to be clear I am not.  I am not even suggesting that I am living without sin in my life.  In fact, 1 John makes it clear that if I say that I am deceiving myself.  And yet, the statement remains and is true.  I am holy.  When God sees me, he does not see my own holiness, but instead the holiness of Christ.  And because I am united to Christ, when God looks at me and sees the holiness of Christ - He sees me as holy.  I am holy in the sight of God.  What a glorious truth this is because of the work of Jesus Christ.

It is sometimes hard to keep this in proper tension.  On the one hand - if I think of myself totally in my flesh I will see myself as totally unholy - and even the good things I do are but filthy rags.  I am to come to God in humility and recognize that all the forgiveness He gives me has nothing to do with me deserving an ounce of it.  On the other hand, if I think of the holiness of Christ in me and therefore do not care what I do and make no effort to live as who Christ has made me, I will not honor God and not show reverence for the Christ who died for me to make me holy.  

And so I must recognize that I am holy and yet strive to be holy.  This is because I am waiting to be fully made who I truly am in this moment!  What a glorious thought!

We exist for Him

 1 Corinthians 8:6 reads, ". . .yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; . . . " (NASB).  Today I am interested in the phrase "we exist for Him".  Interestingly, the word "exist" is not in the original text, it simply says, "and we for Him".  Later it adds, "and we through Him".  Apparently, in the middle of a discussion on knowledge and freedom (two concepts really popular in our culture today), Paul decides to remind us that we are really for God and through God.  I wonder though if this is a hard concept for us.  We are not really for anyone but ourselves.  We are for political parties.  We are for ideologies.  We are for particular teams and sports and topics and thoughts.  But when we think about belonging to someone or through someone, we fight these ideas in almost every sense.  And yet Paul reminds us that we are, at our fundamental identity, the property of God.  This is not a solo concept in this verse.  He reminded us in 1 Corinthians 3:23 that we belong to Christ.  He reminded us in the same book in chapter 6 and verse 20, "you have been bought with a price." after telling us that we are not our own.  This is not a unique concept even to the book of 1 Corinthians.  We do not belong to us. 

We talk of our time belonging to God, our possessions belong to God, our families belong to God, our work belongs to God.  All of the things that we would "own" clearly are owned by God first, but so often we forget to add ourselves to that list.  I belong to God.  I exist for God.  My life is to be lived in servitude to my glorious Master.

What are you reading?

 I love to read.  In fact, for quite some time I have been tracking all of the books that I read so that I can measure if my reading is increasing both in volume and to ensure that I am reading a broad spectrum of material.  But often it is easier to remember to read for my book list than to read the Bible.  I also read a variety of devotional material - each to a greater or lesser degree based on Scripture.  I wonder how many of us measure our devotion by the amount that we read rather than the quality of the content.  

Some devotional books are a story - or theology with a limited connection to Scripture.  Of course they list the Scripture that you are supposed to read, but often times I find myself not reading the selected Scripture unless something raises a question in my mind.  And I find that I am often reading the devotional and only as much Scripture as the devotional contains.  

May I encourage you to evaluate your devotional reading along these lines also.  Are you reading only the words of the human authors or are you reading the Divinely inspired Word of God?  One of those two sources contains the promise that it will not return void.  (HINT:  its God's Word)  One of those tells us directly of its value in protecting us from sin.  One we are called to meditate on day and night.  One never fails.  One is sharper than a two-edged sword.  And so on.  So, what are you reading?

He is Alive

 We have just celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ!  What a great joy to remember that Christ is raised to life and we serve a living Savior.  But it is also important because it gives grounds to our faith - without it we have hoped for little!  But because of it we have power from God and the promise of God for a future.  I think that sometimes we forget how dependent we are on the resurrection of Christ.  And this is the challenge.  Do we live life as though He is Alive and present with us?  Do we live as though He is Alive and present in us?  

I think that often we live as though He were distant at best and perhaps still dead.  We do not treat Him as though He were alive and reigning.  We think he has lost His power when nothing could be further from the truth.  

Is your Savior Alive?  If so, are you living as if He is!

How to build a healthy church

 I am preaching through the book of 1 Corinthians this year and doing a lot of thinking and study on a healthy church.  As part of that study I came across Mark Dever and Paul Alexander's book, How to Build a Healthy Church, and am thoroughly enjoying my read.  In the note to the reader, I came across this quote, "Our goal isn't to see how innovative we can be.  Our goal is to see how faithful we can be." (How to Build a Healthy Church, Mark Dever and Paul Alexander.  Crossway, Wheaton IL.  2021.  page 25)  As I thought about that I wondered how often we do this the exact opposite.  I have read many books that have told me how to make the church better and very few of them contain Scripture that teaches.  We somewhere along the line made church and perhaps even our relationship with God a product that we sell.  And because it is a product, we can analyze it and change it and market it in any way we choose while thinking we are doing God a favor by updating His work.  We talk about being relevant and forget that the Word does not return void.  We talk about testimony and sharing but we forget the content we are supposed to testify to and share.  So this is my plea to myself - Be Faithful!

Time

 Just this past Sunday, we set our clocks forward one hour.  All of this to accommodate for Daylight Savings Time.  I think we can all agree that the fall change is far better - gaining an hour of sleep instead of losing one.  To be perfectly honest, my wife did all of the remembering this year and set our clocks accordingly.  As I reflected in the days after the time change, I wondered when we move the clocks forward and backward if we do not somehow contribute to an illusion that time is within our control?  After all, we really like control, and we like to think that we have control.  But time is one of those things that remind us of our dependent, created reality.  

I cannot stop time.  

I cannot slow time.

I cannot speed time.

I cannot change time.

I cannot move time.

And I cannot do these things for something that like me is a created reality.  Time did not exist before God created it.  And time will not exist when God is finished doing His perfect work.  Time, and the changing of the times, should remind me that I am totally dependent on the God who made me.  Praise be to God.

Pain

 Last Wednesday started the season of Lent - a time of preparation and focus on the work of Christ on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.  As I reflect on the work of Christ I have been reading the gospels and the records of the crucifixion and the events that lead up to it.  When I read these texts, I am reminded of the immense pain that Jesus went through to save us from our sin and sinfulness.  I want to simply remind us today of some of the pain.

Physical Pain - Jesus endured a whipping that was designed to nearly kill a man.  He was beaten.  He had a robe placed on open wounds and then taken off.  He had a crown of thorns slammed on his head.  He had nails pounded through his hands and feet.  And all of this was just the prelude to the real torture.

Emotional Pain - Jesus correctly predicted that his closest followers would abandon him.  He knew and experienced the betrayal and denial of Peter.  He was weeping over Jerusalem even upon the triumphal entry.  

Spiritual Pain - Jesus experienced total isolation from God His Father.  He was forsaken.  He was punished because of our sins.  He bore the literal weight of all of our sins on the cross.  

The pain of death - Jesus surrendered Himself to die.  He was God incarnate.  God eternal.  Death was not a part of what He should have had to endure, and yet he became one of us and was willing to die as one of us so that we could live.

What a Savior we serve who was willing to go through so much pain.

Love - A Valentine's Day Corrective

 As anyone who knows me well knows - I do not celebrate Valentine's Day!  (everyone can let out a collective sigh of sympathy for my wife.)  If you do celebrate the day, please know I bear you no ill will.  However, I think it is important to know that we need to define some terms.  After all, I have been watching a few commercials that tell me what love really is and how I should define it.  The sad truth is that more and more of those ads have included relationships that I would not define as true definitions of love, and I think that this is because we have allowed our culture for too long to define the terms.  I will illustrate this with one word - the word "Love" itself.  

What is Love?  How you answer this question actually has a lot of important implications.  After all, if we say God is love, how we define love matters a great deal for our understanding of God.  If we say we are to love one another, how we define love matters a great deal.  And if we talk about self-love, how we define love matters.  I do not wish to make you read a long dissertation of the definition of love.  I want to pick one element of what love is and simply point out some difference.  The element I choose today is the question of where love starts - does it start internally or externally?

The culture will quickly tell you that love is internal and primarily emotional because it is internal.  Love is a feeling because it originates deep inside of us.  We cannot understand it always because the" heart wants what the heart wants."  Every sappy Hallmark movie, every romantic comedy, every commercial begins with the premise that love starts with me.  The Bible however has a different idea.

Biblically, love is primarily external.  It is not primarily an emotion - it is an act of the will, a choice to be made to act in a particular way.  Love is therefore not a feeling, but as DC Talk said - Luv is a Verb.  (Props to you if you get the reference)  We can understand it because it has been revealed to us by a God who loved us first and it does not start with me and therefore is not only external but can easily be defined because the God who is love has defined it for us.  

I will not today dive any deeper than that.  Love is not something you feel, it is something you choose to do.  Anything less is a culturally driven mis-representation of what love really is.  

Simple and Yet Profound

 I am always amazed at the reality of God and His Word and the Gospel contained therein.  I am amazed because in some ways, God, and His Word, and His gospel are exceedingly simple.  It is so simple that the Bible assumes God needs no introduction. "In the beginning God. . . ".  It simply states that "Your Word is Truth" (John 17:17) And the Gospel is condensed into the fact that Jesus died for me, was raised to life and sits at the right hand of the Father.   In many ways, these are simple truths that even children can understand.

And yet, the truths about who God is, about His Word, and about the gospel are also so profound that we could spend our lives studying them and never exhaust that which is knowable about any single part of these three.  For instance, I can know that God is holy - a simple truth.  And yet to mine the depths of what His holiness means and how it is demonstrated and how I am to respond to it is a profound study.  I can know that His Word is true and yet to seek out the fullest and deepest meaning of this truth would take lifetimes and I would never come to a full understanding of its glory.  I can know that the gospel is that Jesus died for me and was raised but to really comprehend what that means for my justification and sanctification and glorification can constantly amaze me.  

God is simple and yet so profound.  Praise God that I can see His revelation and understand it and yet I will never exhaust it.

Reading Goals

 As each new year comes around, there are always people and blogs and magazines that encourage you to read more and strive to accomplish more and do more and be more.  It is almost as if they want you to keep striving to attain an unattainable goal and of course pay $9.95 a month to allow them to help you achieve the unattainable goal.  So, today I want to take all of that and remind you that reading is important.  And if you are going to read anything - read the Bible.  

I do not say this because other reading is not important.  It is.  But it is not AS important as reading the Scriptures.  Since the Bible is the Word of God it is categorically different from other books.  It is Authoritative - we must listen and obey.  It is Inspired by God - its source and origin is God working in and through the human authors.  It is True.  It is Sufficient.  It is Clear.  And I could go on.  But you get the idea - the Bible has qualities that are not guaranteed in other books.  And so, your time is best spent reading the Bible.  

I know that often times Bible reading plans seem daunting because reading the Bible in a year requires around 4 chapters per day.  And that can be a lot.  And so when I encourage you to read the Bible, I am not saying read the whole Bible this year.  I want to encourage you to simply do this:

    Read more of the Bible this year than you did last year.

If you read once a month this year, try to do more than that.  If you read once a week, try to do twice a week.  If you read one chapter a day, try to do two chapters a day.  If you read the Bible through in a year, try to read it twice this year.  Pick a book and read that book over and over this year.  Choose a verse and read it every day twice or three times a day!  Just read the Bible.  Don't let your fear of failure knock you down, just read it.  If you miss a day, read again the next day.  Don't feel like you have to make up time.  Just read.  I think that if you do, you will be glad that you did!

New Year - Same Goals

 Each new year, many people strive to set new goals for the year.  Some want to exercise, some want to lose weight, some want to eat better, some want to read their Bible more, some want to go to church more often.  And it would seem that for many, each year that passes is a reminder that they did not do the things that they wanted to do.  

I also find it interesting that in our categories of things we want to do better we often put spiritual things like reading our Bible more and praying more, and maybe memorizing some Scripture.  After all - the goals for our life - as given to us by God anyway, have not changed in the last 2000 years.  We have all of these goals recorded for us in Scripture - and since the Bible does not change, neither have these goals.  

And so since there is nothing new in the goals, and there seems to be no consistency in our setting and keeping goals, what is the problem?

May I suggest that the problem is one of authority.  Allow me to explain.  When we make goals for ourselves, we are the authority.  I get to set the goal and the tone for my life.  So when I fail to meet one of my goals, I am alone to blame.  But when this happens I still am the authority, and so next year I will make new goals for me that I am unlikely to keep, but I will feel good that I made them. This is a little tricky because the Scriptures tell me that on my own I can accomplish nothing good.  So to make actual progress in the Christian life, I have to stop trying so hard and instead trust that God will accomplish His work as I obey. 

This means that the singular goal we should all have it to slay our selfish desire for authority and instead submit to the authority of God.  Ironically, this submission will likely accomplish the goals we would have set for ourselves to begin with, but through submission the change will be more permanent and more perfect because it will be God doing the work and not me.  This is however a BIG ask.  I have to be willing to cease to be my own authority and to surrender willingly to my Maker.  I have to be willing to die each day to self and serve a Savior.  I have to be willing to give up my authority to pay homage to a Holy God and trust that He will work in and through me by the very means of my surrender.  This year may we surrender to God.  To God be the glory.