Blogging With Love, Revisited

Following is the actual text of Steve Sensenig's terrific article "A Blogger's Version of 1 Corinthians 13" . Wouldn't want anybody to miss it:

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If I blog with words that impress greatly and have the most beautiful blog template, but have not love, I am only a bunch of meaningless pixels scattered across the screen. If I have large numbers of readers coming to my blog, and hundreds of comments on every post, but have not love, I am no better than the blogger who has no readers at all. If I can exegete Scripture impressively and convince others of my theological perspective but have not love, I gain nothing.

A loving blogger is patient and kind. Love does not envy other’s site statistics, it does not boast in its own viewpoints, it is not proud of what it writes. Love is not rude to those who comment, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered by disagreements, it keeps no record of wrongs. A loving blogger does not delight in speaking or reading evil but rejoices with speaking the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are blog hosts, their servers will fail; where there is heavy blog traffic, it will be reduced to nothing; where there is impressive writing, it will all be deleted from the file system. For we know in part and we write blog posts in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a beginning blogger, I wrote about trivial subjects, I jumped to conclusions about other viewpoints, I paid no attention to how I talked to others. When I became a mature blogger, I put beginners’ ways behind me.

Now we see but a basic representation of our words as on an old monochrome monitor; then we shall understand all of this theological truth in its fullest. Now I only understand a little bit about which I write; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: site statistics, creative writing and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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I love that. Thanks to Steve.

Turning Wisdom Into Laws

If you're a Legalist, everything looks like a law.

The Legalist can take the most encouraging passages of wisdom from Scripture and turn them into a law to clunk you over the head with. It's uncanny.

An example is Hebrews 10:25, "...not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near."

What a wonderful verse. Reminding us to not isolate ourselves from the Body of Christ, but to encourage one another, and "...consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds." (Heb. 10:24).

It's a joyful verse, filled with hope!

But the Legalist makes it a law. A law that goes something like this:

Go to church! At least the worship service! And frankly, if you don't show up every time the door is open, I wonder about you. If you miss church, you are in sin. This is a command of God, one of His many laws. And laws are meant to be kept. Look at John over there. He comes to church every time the doors are opened. Now that's a godly man! I'm watching you.

(I kinda hate to even write the above diatribe as a Legalist would think, because I can feel some of you cringe with the old legalistic thinking. But if you recognize it, in all its horror, then you can reject it, repudiate it, replace it with Grace-filled thinking.)

Without regard to the heart, the Legalist looks at the actions. And having imposed his law-based twist on every scripture, he will heap condemnation on you in a New York minute if you don't see it his way.

Even if you LOVE the scripture in question, and your heart is devoted and grateful to Christ, who is our Wisdom, the Legalist will turn it into an opportunity to accuse you...IF you listen to him.

Don't listen to him.

Listen to the lover of your soul. Listen to the bridegroom. Listen to the Shepherd.

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

The Tare Police

There is something disturbing that I’ve noticed more and more in the church in America. I hear it in person or on TV, I read it on internet blogs and websites, and I see articles on it in magazines.

More and more, Christians are declaring that other Christians are unsaved or unregenerate.

Some Calvinists think that Arminians aren’t saved. Some Arminians think that Calvinists aren’t saved. Some non-Charismatics think Charismatics aren’t saved and some Charismatics think non-Charismatics aren’t saved. Some fundamentalists think Reformed folks are unsaved, and some Reformed folks think fundamentalists are unsaved. Some think Emergent church folks are unsaved, and some think New Perspective folks are unsaved. Some think Southern Baptists are mostly unregenerate, and some think the Methodists are all unsaved liberals.

Need I go on to the Protestants and Catholics, the Covenant Theology guys, The Dispensationalists, the New Covenant Theology guys, the Auburn Theology guys, the Open Theism guys, or those who commit some horrible public sin?

And some will say that those who think they have all the truth and that everybody else is suspect in their salvation are the unsaved ones, because they don’t accept everybody.

Now if you are not even aware of these various distinctions and you just love everybody, God bless you. But some will think you are thereby just plain undiscerning and so you couldn’t be saved.

O.K., I know all this sounds a little sarcastic.

And I know that discernment is good. I know that being Bereans who read and study our Bibles is good. And seeking to have accurate doctrine is good. And admonishing and correcting one another is good. And desiring the truth is good. And opposing error is good.

And I know that there will be tares among the wheat, wolves among the sheep. But in the parable of the wheat and the tares, the servants ask the owner if they should separate the tares and gather them up. His answer?

"No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.'" -Matthew 13:29,30

What is Jesus getting at here? Why shouldn’t we search out the tares and pull the little rascals out?

Well, you probably know that tares were a plant that looked like wheat. In fact it looked so much like wheat that you couldn’t be sure which was which until the very end of its maturity. You might think you saw a tare, but then you couldn’t be too sure. Or you might think you saw wheat, but then it turned out to be a tare in the end.

Notice some things here that Jesus thinks are important:

1. It’s the Enemy that sows the seeds of the tares.

The Bible calls false teaching "doctrines of demons", but they can be very subtle. And sometimes real sheep, real wheat, can pass on bad teaching that they learned from other sheep passing on bad teaching. So there is definitely some evil going on with this tare thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s always detectable who the tares are.

2. If you attempt to tear up the tares, the wheat may be harmed.

Look at the care that Jesus has for His children. He would rather have the tares growing up in the visible church, than to cause harm to His brethren.

Don’t let that slide by. If you think you hate bad doctrine, God hates it worse. If you think you love truth, Jesus is the Truth. Yet He would prefer that hypocrites, unbelievers, unregenerate be left hiding in the church, than to do anything that would cause spiritual harm to His people.

This brings to my mind two verses:
1. Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, …"I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." We don't have to worry that God's plan will fail because we don't identify every tare that comes along.

2. Rom. 8:28, God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him, and are the called according to His purpose. This includes working together for good the presence of tares among the wheat. It's not that it's good...but God will work it for good.

So how shall we deal with the tares?

Didn’t Paul the Apostle and others declare some people unsaved? Didn’t they rout out the false teachers and declare curses of anathema on them?

Yes. But they also did miracles, healed the sick, raised the dead, and did other authenticating signs of their apostleship. The apostles at times had insights into the human heart that can only be seen as a spiritual gift. But this is not promised to all of us. When Peter tells a local prophet that he is in the gall of bitterness, referring to his lost state, or when Paul or Jude identify a false teacher as one destined for the lake of fire, they are exercising a gift of direct revelation from God. We can’t presume to have the same gift.

We may have an opinion that we keep to ourselves. We may even exercise church discipline on a church member who is unrepentant of some public ongoing sin, and "treat him as if he were an unbeliever", but even then we can’t declare him to be an unbeliever.

Let’s love the people Jesus loves, so much that we are unwilling to hurt them by trying to sort out the sheep and the goats. Let’s love the brethren so much that even in our correction, we give the benefit of the doubt.

We will make mistakes. But we need to err in the direction of love and acceptance for even the weak or misguided sheep. And we need to err in the direction of encouraging the sheep that we may even privately think are not sheep. And if they prove to be sheep after all, we will have done a great service to the Kingdom of God. And if they prove in the end to not be sheep, we will have honored our Lord who said not to tear up the tares. Leave that to the harvesters at the end of the age.

And finally, we may have encouraged or admonished or corrected one who was not yet a sheep. But through God’s grace, our love and encouragement and teaching, one day they truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s not be tare police. Let’s not let the failings of church folks steal our fruit of the Spirit. Our love, or joy, or peace, or patience, or kindness, or goodness, or meekness, or faithfulness or self-control.

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Tithing Revisited

In January of 2006 I posted on the subject of tithing.

I have received numerous emails and comments that were favorable, and several that were not favorable, but were civil and kind.

I've also received several wild-eyed "You've GOT to be KIDDING!!!, you Anti-Christ Underminer of...of...didn't you ever read Malachi???!!!!" type of responses. I always write back to these folks, offering a kind word, and sometimes offering to calmly and Biblically discuss the matter. They never want to.

The latest, from a man I'll call "Andre" (because that's the name he used in his email with a fake email address) was written in giant, bold-type, accented wild-eyed type font. His accusations were entirely emotional, with accompanying Old Covenant Bible verses (typical). I felt sorry for him in his bondage, and athough my email was rejected because of his fake email address, I replied to him as follows:

Dear Andre,

Thank you for writing.

The verses you quote are all from Scriptures that were from under the Old Covenant. The quotes from the four Gospels were from Jesus who Himself was born under the Law, that is the Mosaic Law or Old Covenant, and lived under the Old Covenant.

He, of course, fully followed and obeyed the Law, which demonstrated that He was the perfect Lamb of God.

The Old Covenant was made obsolete by the New Covenant in the blood of Christ (Hebrews 8).

I dare say you didn't read my writings carefully at all.

1. I never said tithing was evil. If someone wants to give 10% of their income joyfully...great! Nothing wrong with that.

2. I said that *teaching* tithing [as a commandment] is evil, because under the New Covenant, no percentage of income is *ever* mentioned. And even under the Old Covenant, income was never tithed, only produce, and more than once per year, totaling over 20%.

3. If you could show *one* example of tithing commanded under the New Covenant (that is, after the Cross), I would happily teach tithing. But such an example doesn't exist, only the teaching of cheerful giving as determined by the God-guided heart of the individual, as God prospers him.

4. I strongly believe in giving to the Lord's work, but to teach tithing just puts people under the Law, and actually causes them to sin. Rom. 6:14 says that sin shall no longer be master over us because we are not under Law, but under Grace.

5. The grip of Legalism is so strong around your neck, that you can only shout (for that is what your giant bold print is in the online world) at me while you're being strangled.

I *love* the Word of God, but the Old Covenant is obsolete. You may as well shout at me to slay lambs on an altar, and then shout that "It's in the Word of God!!!!" But you would be as wrong in the lamb sacrifices as you are in the command to tithe one's income.

Blessings,
Terry

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Risen With Christ

Praise the Lord for the resurrection of Christ!

Consider this also. When Jesus died on the Cross on that Good Friday, and took the wrath of God on Himself...in some mysterious way...we were in Him.

We were crucified with Him, and we died. By the grace of God, our old self died, in Christ.

Then we, in Christ, went to the tomb. We were “buried with Him through baptism”...the baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.

Then when He was raised from the dead, we too were raised from the dead. Made alive to God through Christ Jesus.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together...--Eph. 2:4-6

In raising us up with Him, He gave us a whole new identity.

Where we were Sinners by nature, He made us Saints.

He made us His children, friends of Christ, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, in union with Him, adopted by Him, complete in Christ, free from condemnation, the righteousness of God in Christ, a branch of the Vine, chosen and appointed to bear fruit, the temple of the Holy Spirit, seated with Him in the heavenlies, God's workmanship, inseparable from the love of God, fully accepted in the Beloved.

We can assume no glory for it. All glory goes to the Lamb, who is worthy, who was slain from the foundation of the world.

We can know by faith that we are risen with Christ. And Easter, Resurrection Day, can have greater and greater meaning for us, when we see what God has accomplished in us.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Love and Blogging

Christian Musician Steve Sensenig has a great post regarding blogging with love, entitled "A Blogger's Version of 1 Corinthians 13". May the Lord use it to bring the fruit of the Spirit to Christian blogs everywhere. Take a look:

http://theologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2006/04/bloggers-version-of-1-corinthians-13.html

Emotions, Truth, and Freedom

One of the most precious and glorious and profound scriptures in all the Bible, I believe is also one of the most neglected.

John 8:31,32 says this:

If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

When this great passage is not neglected it is often used incorrectly by the world. You’ll see it on government buildings, and in political rallies of the most unbiblical kind. People sometimes think that THEIR idea of truth is what sets free. But of course, it’s the truth of God that truly sets us free.

Emotions, or the way we feel, often governs the way we act.

Ask any trained salesman, and they will tell you an old maxim that goes like this, "People buy according their emotions, and then justify their purchase with logic."

That’s just one example, of course. Much of what we decide to do or not do in life is decided by how we FEEL about it. And this is not automatically bad. Emotions certainly are a gift from God.

To be able to feel often means to be able to enjoy. To be able to feel often means that we don’t just live as robots, but that we live with zest and passion and compassion and focus and fun.

Of course emotions also may allow us to feel grief, despair, depression, rage, and misery.

But how do we take these wild mustangs of emotion and drive them into the corral, and train them to do what is best for them? To be able to value them, and not dread them? To get them to help us in making decisions in life that are wise decisions? Without becoming robots?

The answer is in the word TRUTH. As the passage says, The Truth shall make you free.

Let me make a radical statement here. I have tested this statement for many years, and found it solid. Like any generalization, there may be exceptions, but they are rare. This radical statement is solid. And here’s the statement:

"Whenever we are in bondage, in our minds or our emotions, it is because of error in our thinking."

Now this is actually good news, for three reasons:

1. We can limit the error that we take into our minds. We can’t eliminate it, because it assaults us through our eyes, our ears, and even internally from repetition of past error. But we can limit it. We can stay away from input that we know contains great amounts of error, whether it be books, TV shows, or a particularly destructive person.

2. We can fill our minds with truth. The most obvious source of this truth for the Christian is the Word of God. Secondary sources may be trusted teachers of the Word, including books, spoken messages, and so forth. But filling our minds with truth sets us free.

3. Our emotions are the result of our thoughts. And our thoughts are the result of what seems true to us. And what seems true may not be true at all. If you think a rattlesnake is inches from your face in the dark, it doesn’t matter one bit if it’s only a rope. Your heart will pound, your skin will perspire, your muscles may go rigid…you get the idea. It doesn’t matter what the truth really is in this case. What you THINK the truth is affects your emotions.

Now the reason this is good news, is that if you can limit the error you take in, and if you can fill your mind with truth, and if your emotions will respond to that truth, then you can be made free. Free in your thinking, free in your feeling, and free in your decision-making.

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Christian Artist Association

There is a new organization whose goal it is to honor Christ in Contemporary Christian Music.

You may want to take a look:
http://www.christianartistassociation.com/

They're called the Christian Artist Association, and provide promotion for Christian Artists, and a way for others to help the cause. Their motto is "worship inspire create serve".

Too Much Theology?

Don't be afraid of Theology. Christian Theology, while technically, "the study of God", encompasses all the study of all the truths of Scripture.

We all have a Theology framework, a way of understanding Scriptural truths. Some of our Theology frameworks may be defective, some may be accurate.

When you see someone who is "so Theological that they're no earthly good", don't think, "They are just filled with too much Theology."

The truth is, they need more Theology, not less. But they need the right part of Theology, added to, or replacing their current parts.

For example, if they delight in the death of the wicked, they need to understand that the Lord does NOT delight in the death of the wicked.

2nd example: If they are operating under the Mosaic or Old Covenant, they need to understand that the Old Covenant is made obsolete by the New Covenant.

3rd example: If they are "cold" in their Theology, they may need to incorporate the Theology of 1 Corinthians 13, the famous "Love" passage.

4th example: If their Theology understands that they can do anything if they set their mind to it, they may need to understand that we can do nothing apart from the Lord, and must walk in His Spirit.

5th example: If their Theology puts them under condemnation because they fail, they may need to understand that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

6th example: If they think they're "better" than the next guy because they have some theological knowledge, they need the theology that asks them, "What do you have, O man, that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you didn't receive it?"

Etc, etc.

Don't throw out the "baby" of Theology with the "bathwater" of bad or incomplete Theology. Keep seeking the face of the One who IS the Truth, keep studying the Scriptures, and be being filled with the Spirit, and your Theology will be the better for it.

In other words, we need to be full of the Word of God, rightly divided, and filled with His Spirit, and that's Theology of the highest sort.

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Loving Jesus vs. Admiring Jesus

Admiring Jesus seems to be admitted by practically everyone.

From Mahatma Ghandi, who through modeling the peaceful ways of Jesus changed the face of India and the world, to Mohammed, who called Jesus a prophet, to the average person on the street, just about everyone admires Jesus of Nazareth.

In fact, I’ve never met a person who would not say that they admired Jesus, at least until His gospel rips open their heart and separates the real admirers from those who admire from ignorance.

But my real point in this message is not to cast stones at those who are outside the church of Jesus Christ, who are outside the body of Christ, yet claim to admire Jesus. My real point is to encourage those who are in the body of Christ, to go beyond admiring Jesus, to a new level of loving Him.

There are those believers who have been born again, basically love the Lord, basically know their bibles, and know for a fact that Jesus is God, that He is good, that He is righteous, that He sacrificially gave His life for our sins, that He rose again, that He is Lord over all, and that He deserves all the glory and honor that He could ever receive.

But with all that born-again admiration, with their cries of "we must glorify God in all we do", with their exhortations of obedience, obedience, obedience…with all that, I often see a lack of loving intimacy with this admired Savior.

Why is that? I think it’s for two reasons.

1. Many travel in theological circles that are law-oriented.

They see the Christian life, not primarily as a relationship or fellowship with our Friend and Brother and Savior Jesus, but as a life of rules and regulations. They know Jesus loves them, but the degree of that love is dependent on our performance. You will find them emphasizing that verse, "If you love me you will obey my commandments." But you won’t often see them quoting the verse, "…[nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God which Is in Jesus our Lord."

So some lack this intimate loving relationship with Christ, just because it is considered sort of selfish and distasteful in their theological circles. Sort of mystical, sort of anti-good-doctrine. They use derogatory terms such as "touchy-feely" or "kum-ba-ya around the campfire emotionalism".

If you are one of these, please keep reading.

2. Many are scarred by a perceived lack of love, or perceived rejection, in earlier times of their lives.

Now, don’t think I’m getting all psychological here. And particularly, if you belong to category 1, the law-oriented type, I know the hairs are standing up on the back of your neck at the very mention of our past lives affecting our walk with Christ.

But here is the simple fact. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. And when we are born again, and come to Christ, and we become new creations in our spirits…we sometimes still have a lot of renewing of our minds that are needed.

Many times, a perceived lack of love, or perceived rejection of some kind by parents, or peers, or a teacher, for example, can make us instinctively feel that we can’t really be loved. And that carries over into our feelings about whether God can really love us. And that can keep us from really having the intimate and loving fellowship with Jesus that we may want to have.

And then sometimes a mis-guided kind of cold-steel theology is piled on to make it even worse. These perhaps well-intentioned folks say things like, "You don’t just feel unworthy, you are unworthy. Get over it. You’re a sinner. You’re a worm and a jerk. Don’t let these Dr. Feelgood softies make you think you’re loveable. Just pull up your bootstraps and start obeying. Bring glory to God. It’s all about Him, it’s not about you, you selfish pig. Start performing, and see if you can bring your level of performance up to where it should be – in the power of the Spirit, of course."

And the implication is that if you perform well enough, that then you might be loveable . . . at least a little.

But of course this is hogwash. If you feel unloved, you feel unloved.

Now listen please to this: The only way you will ever feel loved by God, is through understanding from His Word that you were loved by Him long before you were "loveable". And He loves you because He chooses to love you. And there is nothing you could ever do to make Him love you more, and there is nothing you could ever do to make Him love you less.

And it’s because of one thing…Grace. There is a rest for the people of God, the Bible says, wherein they rest from their works! That doesn’t mean we don’t do good works. We will, as God works them in us, and we walk by His Spirit. It means we rest from our works as means of gaining love and acceptance and fellowship with God, with Jesus.

Read these verses in Romans Chapter 8 (or read the whole chapter), and you will see the love of God in writing: 10, 15b, 16, 18-19, 28-30, 32, 35-39. Don't doubt it. Don't think it can't mean you. It does mean you. And when you really "get" how much He loves you, apart from your performance, then you can experience and appropriate His love, and then you can really love, too.

Frederick Lehman was deeply moved by a poem written in 1050 A.D. in Worms, Germany, the site of Martin Luther’s historic meeting, the Diet of Worms, 500 years later. And it led Lehman to write a hymn in 1917, in Pasadena, California, part of which goes like this:

Could we with ink the oceans fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the oceans dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Don’t just admire Jesus. He wants you to be in close, intimate loving fellowship and communion with Him. There is nothing standing in the way. Not even your sins. They are paid for. They are forgiven. "It is finished."

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.