Here is a link to a good article. It is a couple of years old, but still very relevant.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/decemberweb-only/morechaplains.html?paging=off
Why God is a Monarch and not a President
It seems to me that too many Western Christians view God as a president and not a monarch. Perhaps we confuse how heaven is run with the muddled way we govern ourselves. A president is elected by the people and serves them at their whim. They can be deposed and a new one voted in as the people will. God is a monarch. People serve Him, as He elects and dictates. He serves forever as no one is powerful enough to depose Him. He does not have to share power with committees, congresses or groups of people. He alone determines what He will do and then He executes His plans and brings them to pass. He is not influenced by lobbyists, special interest groups or political opinion polls. It is at His feet everyone will one day kneel and confess that He is Lord.
As long as we have the view of God as a president or prime minister and not as a monarch, we will never view God correctly. Our relationship with Him will be immature at best and non-existent at most. This view has permeated many churches, also. We live in a day of a Laodicean “rule of the people” mindset. Until our view of God changes, we will continue to live lives of complacency and settling for second-best. Until the fear of God is instilled in both individuals and churches, understanding that God is Sovereign over the affairs of mankind, we will continue to see a world slipping further and further into spiritual darkness.
Weekly Photo Challenge — Infinite
A fantastic challenge, to find a picture that portrays the concept of the infinite. For me, sunrises in Montana seem to stretch forever, like this one shot just south of Lloyd. A sunrise brings with it the promise of a new beginning and each one is infinitely crafted by its Infinite Creator
Thinking of Christ’s Return
While I was sitting in church this past Sunday, listening to the choir sing Days of Elijah, my mind starting fixating on the words of the chorus:
Behold He comes! Riding on the clouds!
Shining like the sun! At the trumpet call
Lift your voice! It’s the year of Jubilee!
And out of Zion’s hill salvation comes!
My mind was swept away thinking about the greatness of our King’s return. He will come for His own, coming back through the clouds as He went away, riding on His great white horse followed by the armies of heaven. What a magnificent scene this will be. He will blaze with glory, outshining the sun in His brilliance because He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. The trumpet blast will herald the return of the King of kings and for those who are His it will be a time of jubilee, a time of salvation, a cause to shout and praise. For others, though, it will be a time of despair, as He comes to execute judgment on those who do not believe, who have not bowed to Him as their Lord.
Charles Wesley captured this in his great hymn Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending which I reprint below:
Lo, He comes with clouds descending, Once for favored sinners slain
Thousand, thousand saints attending, Swell the triumph of His train
Alleluia, alleluia, God appears on Earth to reign
Every eye shall now behold Him, Robed in dreadful majesty
Those who set at naught and sold Him, Pierced and nailed Him to the tree
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, shall the true Messiah see
Now the Savior long expected, See in solemn pomp appear
All His saints by man rejected, Now shall meet Him in the air
Alleluia, alleluia, See the day of God appear
Yes, Amen! Let all adore Thee, High on Thine eternal throne
Savior take the power and glory, Claim the kingdom for Thine own
O come quickly, O come quickly, Everlasting God come down
Are you ready for the coming of Jesus Christ? No man knows the hour or the day when He will appear in all His glory. Today is the day of salvation, tomorrow might be the day of judgment.
Calvinism, Cyborgs and Baptism
Recently there has been a stir among the Web about the future possibility of wrestling with the question of baptizing cyborgs. As more and more artificial parts are integrated into human beings, the issue of creating cyborgs as pictured in science fiction movies may, indeed, become fact. The question arises when artificial intelligence is uploaded to a human body. Does it then become human? Does it have a soul? These are questions that seem far-fetched, and yet they are being discussed in places such as Christianity Today and in the Southern Baptist Convention.
At issue is the definition of a soul and the definition of salvation, as well as the means by which salvation is obtained. If salvation is by a free will choice solely determined by one’s mind (I choose to accept Jesus as Savior) then the question of an artificial intelligence choosing wisely is very real. If salvation is a grace gift given by the Lord to whom He chooses (the elect), then the question is irrelevant. Do you see how one’s theological understanding of free will impacts the discussion?
If God breathes into a life at conception, giving it a soul, then that is one issue. If one believes that the soul and intelligence are one and the same, that is another issue. If one believes the mind (intelligence) is the same as a soul, then there is a real concern of baptizing cyborgs. If one believes that the soul is placed into a body, (and by extension a new body at the resurrection) then it doesn’t matter, the whole point is moot.
Before more articles are written raising questions about such things, it would be wise for authors to clarify and define their use of terms for words such as soul, spirit and salvation. It might even be helpful to clarify the authors understanding of cyborg versus golem. Just a random thought on a Tuesday morning, but one that might merit some consideration.
Blessed Are They …
I have spent a lot of time over the years working as a hospice chaplain. It amazes me how many homes I go into where the family has little or no contact with organized religion. It is in those homes, though, where I am able to minister as a chaplain more than I can as a pastor. As a pastor, I am seen as a guardian of a particular denomination. As a chaplain, I come across as less threatening. As a pastor, I am seen as trying to persuade someone to my church. As a chaplain, I am seen as a person truly interested in someone’s spiritual well being. I have also recently read some good pieces of literature relating to hospice, dying and dignity. Let me share two of those with you today.
The first is by Gwendolyn London and is remarkably profound:
“We must realize that dying is a spiritual process with medical implications, not a medical process with spiritual implications.”
The second is a poem by Malcomb Goldsmith, from his book: In A Strange Land: People with Dementia and the Local Church
Blessed are they who understand, my faltering steps and shaking hand
Blessed are they who know my ears today, must strain to catch the words they say
Blessed are they with cheery smile, who stop to chat for a little while
Blessed are those who never say, “You’ve told us that story twice today.”
Blessed are they who make it known, that I’m loved, respected and not alone.
And I would add, blessed are those who reach out to the dying, to bring the love and witness of Jesus Christ one last time to souls who need Him
A Tool or an Excuse?
In past years, I used to use spiritual gift assessment inventories with various congregations to help them discover the talents and gifts God had blessed them with. We would follow this up with studies on how to use those gifts in service to God through the church, community outreach, etc. These last few years, I have hesitated in using such tools. My hesitancy was based on observations that they were being misused by the very people I was hoping to help. It seemed that once a gift was identified, it was hard for people to volunteer to do anything outside their “gift” area. Far from helping them, I felt I had enabled them to become lazy, giving them an excuse to not do anything out of their comfort zone. I do not believe that God only gives people one gift. I believe that many times God calls us to do things we are not gifted or talented in, so that He can show His power through us. A friend of mine argues that instead of creating specialists in the church, we need to focus on making generalists, people who can function in multiple ways. I agree. I believe that a church full of people cross-trained in many different areas will acquire the skills necessary because God will give them what they need to accomplish His purpose. How wonderful to have a church filled with trained pre-school workers, musicians, worship leaders, and grief counselors. How fantastic to have people trained in public speaking, how to develop a sermon or how to teach teen-agers. What a joy it would be to have a church full of people ready and willing to visit the sick, trained in apologetics or capable of leading a prayer meeting.
Maybe it is just me, but the more I see how spiritual gift inventories and tools are being used, the more I think it is just an outgrowth of our narcissistic society, wanting to know how special we are. Usually, we all know what we are strongest at and weakest in, and using the tools only confirms what we have suspected or known. It would be better to promote cross-training in all areas, so that like the Apostle Paul we can become all things to all men so that by all means we may win some of them to Jesus Christ. Lets go for a broad approach to finding out just how much we can learn to do for Christ, rather than using the spiritual cop-out of, “that’s not my gift.”
Good Definitions of Repentance
Again, as part of our research in putting together our newest resource, The 180º Project, we have found some good thoughts concerning biblical repentance. Some of these we share below. While not all of these will make it into our final book, all of them are worthy of contemplation. If you run across any that you would like to share with us, please email them to us at taethne@outlook.com. Please enjoy”
[Repentance] is not a merely intellectual change of mind or mere grief, still less doing penance, but a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental turnaround involving mind and action and including overtones of grief, which result in (spiritual) fruit. — D.A. Carson
Repentance is more than just sorrow for the past; repentance is a change of mind and heart, a new life of denying self and serving the Savior as king in self’s place. — J.I. Packer
Remorse precedes true repentance. Changed behavior follows true repentance. But this necessary prelude and postlude of true repentance are not themselves the essence of repentance. True repentance is a denial that anything in us ever would or ever could satisfy God’s holiness or compel His pardon. We humbly concede that we can offer nothing for what He alone can give. Then we rest in His promise to forgive those who humbly seek Him… Repentance, therefore, is fundamentally a humble expression of a desire for a renewed relationship with God – a relationship that we confess can be secured only by His grace. — Bryan Chapell
Our Lord’s idea of repentance is as profound and comprehensive as His conception of righteousness. Of the three words that are used in the Greek Gospels to describe the process, one emphasizes the emotional element of regret, sorrow over the past evil course of life, metamelomai; Matt. 12:29-32; a second expresses reversal of the entire mental attitude, metanoeo, Matt. 12:41, Luke 11:32; 15:7, 10; the third denotes a change in the direction of life, one goal being substituted for another, epistrephomai; Matt. 13:15 (and parallels); Luke 17;4, 22:32. Repentance is not limited to any single faculty of the mind: it engages the entire man, intellect, will and affections… Again, in the new life which follows repentance the absolute supremacy of God is the controlling principle. He who repents turns away from the service of mammon and self to the service of God. —Geerhardus Vos
It is one thing to love sin and to force ourselves to quit it; it is another thing to hate sin because love for God is so gripping that the sin no longer appeals. The latter is repentance; the former is reform. It is repentance that God requires. Repentance is “a change of mind.” To love and yet quit it is not the same as hating it and quitting it. Your supposed victory over a sin may be simple displacement. You may love one sin so much (such as your pride) that you will curtail another more embarrassing sin which you also love. This may look spiritual, but there is nothing of God in it. Natural men do it every day. —Jim Elliff
Thoughts on Repentance
As work continues on The 180º Project, research into the topic of repentance continues to yield many treasures. There has been a lot of things written on this topic over the centuries and we hope to coalesce this into a work that will benefit many leaders. One such treasure that we have found comes from Scott Hafemann, from his theological primer. If you find any such gems that you feel might help us in our research on biblical repentance, send them our way at taethne@outlook.com. Enjoy his:
Jesus’ gospel of forgiveness is not unrelated to the Bible’s demand for holiness. Obedience is not a “second step” added to our faith, so that “accepting Jesus as Savior” must be supplemented by “accepting Jesus as Lord.” We are not saved by grace and then sanctified (made holy) by our own works. Being a Christian is not a matter of adding our will to God’s, our efforts to His. Rather…”putting away sin,” which is faith in action, is the means to persevering, which we do by depending on Jesus from beginning to end. In other words, repenting from the disobedience of disbelief, and the life of persevering faith that this brings about, which entails obeying God, are all one expression of “looking to Jesus.” One cannot exist without the other… There is only one thing, not two, that we must do to be saved: trust God with the needs of our lives. This one thing in God’s provision (now supremely manifested in Christ) will show itself, from beginning to end, in our many acts of repentance and obedience.
Scott Hafemann
The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 191-192.
ta ethne 