Concerning Christian Community

during the fall semester of 2010 we took a few weeks to discuss biblical community with our teens.  i have decided to post excerpts from this series.

before we hit the book of Acts and begin to understand the beauty of the community of believers, i think it is good for us to understand the importance of Christian Community.  let us start with an essential element, UNITY.

in John 17, Christ prays for His disciples and all of those who would believe the gospel message as a result of their ministry. it is a beautiful prayer, the last words recorded from the mouth of Christ in John’s gospel before he is arrested, tortured and crucified.

the prayer is setup with a progression of the mission of the gospel:
God the Father sent the Son to proclaim the Word.
the Disciples accepted the Word and are then sent out by Christ to proclaim the message to the World.
All who hear and accept the gospel are a part of this great mission.

between the death of Christ (v.19) and the joys of eternity in His presence (v.25), Christ prays for one thing and one thing only- the Unity of the Church.

first, we must cover the Foundation of Unity.
lets remember where this unity comes from:
the unity of our christian community comes from God- Christian unity is the result of the power and working of God (hence the reason why Christ is praying to the Father for it to be a reality in the church).  it is part of being united with Him through Christ (v.21) and is the result of the reality of God’s love in our midst and the presence of Christ in us. (v.26) All of this is a result of Christ’s ministry to the Church, as He continues to make God (the father) known.

the result of Christian Unity:
in the midst of this beautiful mystery, that of being one with believers and one with the triune God (v.21) is a frightening reality-

the church is to be One SO THAT the World will believe that
a.) the Father Sent Christ
b.) the Father loves the church as He loves Christ. (v.21,23)

our unity, as a church, validates the message that we are to proclaim to the World! it, according to Christ, proves that the gospel is true, that Christ is real, that He is from God, and that God passionately loves those whom He has drawn to Himself through Christ!

in Summary:
okay, so we are a part of this great mission to give hope to a world in Chaos. This hope comes from the message of the gospel, spoken by and rooted in Christ, entrusted to the disciples and now entrusted to us. We are called to share this message. . . but, the thing that gives it weight. . . the testimony of its truthfulness. . . is the unity of the church.

Frightening Implications:
there is another relationship that God describes with ‘Oneness’ terminology. Marriage. the marriage relationship is described as a living testimony of the unity of the triune God. a husband and wife become 1 person, never to separate. my generation has a very clear stance on marriage. . . too many of my peers say ‘don’t get married. sure, date, live together, but don’t get married. when you get married it ruins everything. and kids, don’t have kids, they ruin relationships.’ this is a horrific understanding of marriage and family as God designed it. why does such a prevalent view exist?  one reason, i believe, is Divorce.  so many in my generation gaze, suspiciously at marriage, through the lens of broken families and  the terrible consequences of divorce.

it is for this reason that i say that Christ’s prayer has frightening implications. too many churches exist, not unified, but divided, living out divorced relationships. the world too often looks at the church and concludes, ‘yes, i’m spiritual, but i can’t believe in organized religion.’ they look at the church and claim, ‘if that is the church, i can’t believe in their God.’ Christ said that the church must be unified. . . SO THAT the world would believe the message of the Gospel.

the Church Community is to be so radically different from the relationships of this World that when people look at the church they see the presence of God, the Love of God and are drawn to the gospel of God!

i wonder how many people of our community will die and spend eternity in Hell because they have rejected the message of God.  how many, i wonder, have rejected the message after seeing the church? our church?

either our commitment to the church community draws people to the truthfulness of the gospel or it drives them away from the message we proclaim.

how important is christian community? so important that our witness to the lost is in peril without a unified, intimate relationship with the body of believers.

Christ is SO passionate about the Church community (so much so that he would plead with the Father for our unity and give Himself up on the cross for the Church)- are we as committed to the church as He is?

we have been entrusted with the hope of the Word- our commitment to the gathering of believers will either validate the gospel or pervert it.

Are we as committed to the Unity of our Church as Christ is?

eternity hangs in the balance.

idolatry, prt II

okay, so, 2 weeks ago, i started a post about idolatry.  first we sought to address what an idol is and what it is not.  recap: an idol is not simply some prehistoric statue.  it does not matter what shape it takes or what it is made out of.  in fact, an idol can be a formless object- like a relationship or a reputation.

an idol, simply put, is anything that takes God’s rightful place.  it is anything that we place our hope in.  anything that we look to, apart from God, to receive what our heart desires.  Or, quite bluntly, it is what our heart desires.

i’d like to look at the scriptures to help us understand more about the nature of Idols.

An IDOL is ANYTHING that we seek to put in GOD’S PLACE. In isaiah 44:6, before speaking on Idolatry, the firsts thing the Lord does is to establish His Rightful place, this is what the Lord says, Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:  I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. the passage opens this way to lay in stark contrast the only God of the universe and the many idols that are made by His creation.

God’s Rightful Place is as our First Priority
and the Goal of all our Aims.
1 Cor. 10:31

An IDOL is INTERNAL.    Idols RESIDE in the HEART of the IDOL WORSHIPER:
Look at how God describes the ‘external idols’ that filled the land of the Israelites. “Then the word of the LORD came to me:  “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. . . When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the LORD will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry.  I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.’  “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!”  Ezekiel 14:1-6

Idols are Internal, because our desires and our worship
comes from our hearts.

Jere. 13:10- These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless!

Isaiah 44: [concerning the idol worship] He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

IDOL PROMISES-the Allure of the Objects of our Worship: All objects of our Worship Promise us Something.
“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”  Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is
written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” Matt. 4:9-10

The allure of false idols is that they promise to give you ‘all this’ – the primary lie
that Satan uses to deceive us and draw us away from worshiping the true God. . .
who and who alone gives us all we need and in whom is our greatest Joy.

An IDOL is typically made from the things that MEET (or promise to meet) OUR NEEDS:
Let us look again at Isaiah 44.  In verse 12-19, God’s Word describes a man who makes an idol.  He uses creation, which God has created for His glory and our good.  He first uses the various items to warm himself and feed himself.  After he is warm and full, he uses the rest to make an idol.  And although he has been fed and warmed by the gifts of God, he then bows down to what is left and says ‘you, you are my god.’

No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
Isaiah 44:19

In our SIN, our heart desires to Create our OWN gods rather than to worship and acknowledge the true, only GOD. As John Calvin once said, ‘our hearts are idol making factories.’   It is our desire to find something to worship. . . something to give ourselves to, live for, die for, and find our value in.  We will try anthing we can find, besides the Living God.  We will turn from Him, the Living Water, and seek to slirp the dirty waters of broken cisterns made by man.

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,
and have dug their owncisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.’
Jeremiah 2:13

idolatry, prt. I

just a few months ago, i spent 2 weeks in India, Himachal Pradesh to be precise.  it is said that himachal pradesh translates to ‘the land of the gods.’ whether it’s name is derived from the beautiful, mountainess landscape, a stark contrast with the rest of the country, or whether it has to do with the hundreds of temples and thousands of gods that are worshipped in villages and homes across the region, the names seems appropriate.

i am from a country that looks at northern india as a foreign and strange land. a place where idols, big and small, are worshiped daily. families cling to small statues, praying, hoping for this ‘god’ to provide food, money and happiness.

reflecting on my trip, i have decided to write few blogs about the nature of idolatry. because, truth be told, idolatry hits a lot closer to home than many of us would like.  i was born to an idol worshipping family, grew up in a country of idol worshippers and walked in a land of many gods.

true, i can honestly say that in north GA i have never seen communities or families bow before a statue and pray desperately for its providence. but, an idol is not a statue.

What is an Idol?
let’s say i place before you 3 statues. they could be big or small, fat or thin. they could be made out of stone, wood, plastic, bronze or gold. they could be rough, smooth, shiny, or sharp. for the sake of this blog, lets say all 3 were the exact same in every way.  only 1, however, out of the 3, was an idol.   how could this be?

it is not the size of the statue, nor the material in which it is made out of that makes a statue an idol.  no, it is it’s function.  let’s suppose that 1  statue is a flower pot holder, quite ornate for any garden and the other is a fountain, a fine center peice to be sure.  surely you would say, ‘well trent, flower pot holders and fountains aren’t idols, of course the third statue would be the idol.’  that is a fair argument.  but i ask, where does it’s function originate?  is it in the mind of the artist?  the determination of the statue salesman?  the artist of the 1st statue, now being used as a potsoil dumping ground, may have designed and fashioned his statue to be an idol, sitting prominently in a temple square.  yet, here it sits, dirty, and covered with potsoil. 

at the end of the day, regardless of how an object is intended to be used, it is the user who determines it’s function.  the 3rd statue is not an idol simply because it is devoid of flowers.  it is an idol because it is the object of someone’s worship. 

it is the worshiper that makes an idol and idol. it is the worshipper who gives the idol it’s function. a statue is just a statue until a person bows before it, until a person places their hope in it.  as such, an idol can take any form or shape, come from any material or any place.  it can be a statue, a person, a toy, a car, a job title, bank account, relationship, or ideal.  an idol can be anything.

an idol is anything that we place our hope in apart from God.  anything that takes God’s rightful place as soveriegn, king, provider, and lord.  anything that we look to, apart from God, for comfort, happiness, fame and fortune (or whatever it is our heart desires) is an idol.

An Idol is not limited to Primitive Statues.  Idolatry does not exist only in asia.  I live in a land filled with idolatry. 
“An idol is not simply a statue of wood, stone, or metal; it is anything we love and pursue in place of God. In biblical terms, an idol is something other than God that we set our hearts on ( Luke 12:29;1 Cor. 10:6), that motivates us (1 Cor. 4:5), that masters orrules us (Ps. 119:133), or that we serve (Matt. 6:24).”                  -Ken Sande

on the Attributes of God

Since i am on vacation, sitting in the relaxing setting of the beach, i have decided to start reading.  In the past, i have had a difficult time reading past chapter 3 of a book, regardless of its content.  in order to help finish what i start i have decided first of all to read a book that, by God’s grace, shall have lasting impact and second, to blog about what i read.

the book is ‘the attributes of God,’ by A.W. Pink.  So far, i have read the preface and chapter 1.  before continuing on to chapter 2, i have decided to write down the things that stood out to me.

“the spiritual and saving knowledge of God is the greatest need of every human creature” (7).  we are made to behold the glory of God.  to behold it and to respond in kind, in awe-inspired praise of the one who is and will always be.

we need, as Pink says, ‘more than a theoretical knowledge of God.’  on our own, we cannot know him.  we have not the cognitive ability to understand His greatness, comprehend His vastness, nor see clearly His holiness.  God is too big for us- not only in His fullness, but also in part.   we cannot imagine him so great, nor pursue knowledge of Him so as to consider ourselves acquainted with him.

God “cannot be found out by searching.  He can be known only as he is revealed to the heart by the Holy Spirit through the Word” (13).  If we are to know God, even in part, we must be dependent on Him to reveal Himself to us.  to break through our thickened minds and our wayward hearts- both to make known His truth and to apply it in our souls that we may be forever, completely changed by it.

Pink’s book is about knowing the perfect, personal qualities of God.  before we can understand God, we must first Known Him. (1 Cor. 2:14) We cannot know him personally until we are acquainted with God.  we cannot be acquainted with God until we can stand in His presence.  We cannot stand in His presence until we are sinless.  (Mal. 3:2)  We are not sinless.  (Rom. 3:23)  However, God sent Christ, while we were in the midst of our sinful state, to die in our place, upon the cross, and to receive God’s wrath for our sin. (Rom. 5:8)  Those who trust in Christ are made Alive again. (Eph. 2:4-5, John 3:3, 1 Peter 1:23) Born by the Spirit, with a new Heart (Ez. 36:26) and Mind to know God personally, and one day fully. (John 17:23,

Our Greatest need is to Know God
We cannot Know Him unless He reveals Himself to Us
God has revealed Himself through the Holy Spirit and His Word
The spiritually dead cannot understand the workings of the Spirit and the Word
You and I are spiritually dead, because of our sinful condition

We must be ‘made alive’ before we can know God
Because of Christ’s Redemptive Working, we can be Born Again
We are made alive through Faith in Christ
The Spirit enlivens by giving us a new Heart
The Spirit indwells the hearts of believers