God Bids Us To Come & Die!

So crucial is the following quotation to the desperate need of today's church, that I am passing it along thanks to John Piper.

Today, sixty-four years ago, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged for his part in the conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He is known by many for one main sentence. It is worthy of Holy Week.

Here is the context of his most famous quote:

The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther's, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call. (The Cost of Discipleship, 99)

The Last Supper

One of the most recognized paintings of all time is Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, which he painted from 1495-1498. The Intellectual Devotional describes it as "one of the most famous paintings of a biblical subject in Western history." 

The Last Supper depicts Jesus Christ celebrating the Passover meal with his disciples just before Judas betrayed him. "According to the sixteenth-century author Giorgio Vasari, who wrote biographies of the most famous Italian artists of the Renaissance, da Vinci's fresco was meant to capture the precise moment of Jesus Christ's pronouncement, "One of you is about to betray me" (Matthew 26:21). The apostles are thus shown reacting to His words, each one expressing a different emotion--denial, doubt, rage, disbelief, or love."

Jesus had said, "the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table" (Luke 22:21). The Devotional goes on to say, "In da Vinci's painting, Judas is the only person besides Christ with his hand on the table. His face is in shadow, and his body physically recoils from Jesus. In older depictions of the scene by other artists, Judas had been depicted isolated from the rest of the group, either seated alone on the opposite side of the table or stripped of a halo. Da Vinci distinguished him from the other apostles in a more subtle manner, focusing on his psychological state rather than on external attributes."

There are many reactions to Jesus today, not dissimilar to da Vinci's depiction. Humanity has not changed all that much, has it? It behooves us all to ask how might we have responded were we in the place of these men? More to the point, how ARE we responding today? We each can give an expected answer, but when the pressure is on, when Jesus puts the truth before us, we have to respond honestly. The saddest words ever spoken of anyone were spoken of Judas, "It would have been better for him that he had not been born" (Mark 14:21). Indeed, it may be said of all of us, were it not for redemption in Christ, it would've been better for us never to have existed. Far from betraying Jesus, may there be an increase in numbers of those who bow the knee before the "Holy One" of Israel. There is hope in Him.

My Mind's Made Up--Don't Confuse Me with the Facts

That was a "tongue-in-cheek" saying popular in my house as I was growing up. We still may use it occasionally. But it is always, as I said, given in jest due to the obvious conflictual nature intrinsic to such a saying. But this conflict does not hinder the "Global Warming" voices out there today, does it? Their minds are made up, so trounce on reason! In a recent BreakPoint post by Chuck Colson (March 31), and with tongue firmly lodged in his cheek, he wondered how these windy prophets could be getting away with their agenda in light of the facts, namely that if anything, we are currently suffering from global freezing, not warming, as any of us who live in the frozen north can attest. Ah, but we cannot be right can we? Of course not! It's evident when facts are ignored that someone has another agenda.

The folk in Fargo, North Dakota might see otherwise. Colson records:

Temperatures across North Dakota have been five to 10 degrees below normal all winter long. Massive snowfalls have blanketed the Peace Garden State for months. As now, North Dakota is enduring an end-of-March blizzard.

The people of Fargo are paying the price. The ice-jammed Red River is cresting more than 40 feet over normal, flooding everything that isn’t protected by the heroic efforts of North Dakota citizens building up and maintaining the levies.

Despite the fact that the globe has been cooling since at least 2002,  or that near-record cold and snow have plagued much of North America all year long, all the proponents of global warming can see is—well, global warming.

This is why its adherents in Congress and in the White House want curbs on greenhouse gases, potentially ruinous cap-and-trade policies, and curbs on oil exploration (at a time when we need to decrease our dependence on foreign oil). And if in the near future you start paying upwards of $5 a pound for ground beef, thank those in Congress who want to tax cow flatulence as a way to combat global warming.

As the New York Times relates, renowned physicist Freeman Dyson has called “climate change an ‘obsession’—the primary article of faith for ‘a worldwide secular religion’ known as environmentalism.” Dyson accuses the adherents of this religion of “relying too heavily on computer-generated climate models that foresee . . . imminent world devastation as icecaps melt, oceans rise and storms and plagues sweep the earth.”

Why emphasize this? Well, more is at stake here than the national deception foisted upon this nation in order to control us through higher taxes. It raises another question: “Have we grown so inept at reasoning that we cannot see through such inane palaver?” Or is it that we have so little fortitude that we are not willing to react against such arguments even when we know that they are patently erroneous? What happened to that old saying so commonly invoked: "Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Seems many wish to keep their heads buried in the (warm) sand regardless of the personal attacks both to their own mental capabilities as well as to their pocket books. 

On Not Praying One's Personal Agenda

We all have been there. The pastor or a leader opens the service or closes in prayer and in Jesus' name goes on to praise a number of people for what they have done in service to God. Of course, it is good to give credit to folk who have served with a pure heart. But there is a tendency which must be avoided which assumes God and praises man. In the context of service to God with the whole heart, soul, mind and strength, we must not be guilty of feigning love to God while fawning over man. I write this, of course, as a pastor who finds himself in such a compromising position on occasion. I suppose this principle applies equally to all manner of indirect prayers that occur in our prayer meetings, where in the name of God, the pray-er directs his personal agenda or even "preaches" to others in the room. Nothing is so destructive to good prayer. 

All this comes down to integrity of purpose and to good intentions that would rather go out of its way to glorify God than to let the opportunity pass. 

(Hm-m-m, I wonder what they're praying about?)

   

Stewards of the Mystery

The term "mystery" in the Bible refers to a truth heretofore unknown or little understood. In a previous post ("What If Jesus Visited Your Church"--3/28), I touched on one of those mysteries, i.e., "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). Delving into this "mystery" I cannot help feeling as though I am plumbing the depths of the unfathomable. No wonder that in the early part of the 20th Century, the German theologian, Rudolph Otto scrambled to find a term that rightly respected the power, indeed, the awesomeness of God and ended up calling Him the "Wholly Other." But he also utilized a latin term, mysterium tremendum, which you can figure means "tremendous mystery." Intrinsic to this mystery is that this inexplicable God, who's ways are "past finding out" (Job 9:10; Rom. 11:33) entered our world of flesh. The transcendent became immanent. "Immanuel," as you know, means "God with us." Virgin born, Jesus carried within himself God fully, and man fully. Inexplicable! 

On this truth hangs all of history! 

In his post from Thursday, April 2nd, Ravi Zacharias wrote the following:

I have often referenced the quote by the talk-show host Larry King, in his response to a particular question: “If you could select any one person across all of history to interview, who would it be?” Mr. King’s answer was that he would like to interview Jesus Christ. When the questioner followed with, “And what would you like to ask him?” King replied, “I would like to ask him if he was indeed virgin-born. The answer to that question would define history for me.” The first time I requested permission through a common friend to use this quote of his, he sent word saying, “And tell him I was not being facetious.” I believe him. Who would not like to interview Jesus Christ?

So, transcendent, immanent, and virgin born, our Savior exists completely unique in the universe! One can say some things that are true about him, but in no way can one properly tap the depth of such a relationship with Jesus! And to top it off, such an inscrutable mystery belongs not to the spiritual elite, but to all who name Jesus as Savior! Still, this truth comes prepackaged with a wonderful responsibility--stewardship.

Paul writes through the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 4:1, "This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." That's the fact of our vocation. But verse 2 provides the basic condition, "Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy." 

There's the "kicker." We who proclaim Jesus Christ (all Christians, but especially pastors) are "stewards of this mystery." In other words, it falls our lot to properly appreciate this truth, and accurately teach it and to thereby glorify God in it!

One of the errors into which we pastors may easily slide is over-familiarity with certain doctrines. This is dangerous. We've all heard, "Familiarity breeds contempt," which means not to become buddy-buddy with the wrong folk--bosses, & certain authority figures. We in leadership can easily fall prey to the temptation to reduce the wonder of "Christ-in-you" to a fact to be known, and lose the value inherent in that truth. Further, we may become too cozy with Jesus in the sense that after a while we feel we have the right to represent him in any way we feel necessary to make our point, viz., to lower him to a cozy level to suit the culture. While God has graciously invited believers to call him, "Abba," (Daddy) this doesn't mean he's our buddy next-door, nor that we control his public relations. We need to maintain a healthy and loving respect for our Savior. Why? We are stewards of this truth--responsible not just to know it, but to handle it carefully. What a privilege! 

Have a glorious Palm Sunday!

Facing Religious Persecution in America

During WW2, Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached a series  of messages in London as his country faced the very real threat of destruction at the hands of Hitler's Germany. These and other messages from the same era are combined under the title of The Christian in an Age of Terror. It seems very fitting that we today also call on the power of God and ground ourselves thoroughly in God's eternal Word. 

Trials Encourage Intercessory Prayer

An example comes from the first sermon in the book, "Religious Persecution," which he preached in August of 1941 on Acts 12:1-3.

You are aware of the terrible things that took place in Germany [in the 1930s and early 1940s], and formerly in Russia [in the days of Stalin]. I believe it is one of our duties as Christian people to acquaint ourselves with things like these, were it only that we might pray intelligently, and that we might play our part rightly as members of the Christian church who know something about the ministry of intercession and who feel for their brethren.

He then, somewhat prophetically (he attributes it more to reading the indications) goes on to say:

Indeed, perhaps more urgently, we ought to consider this matter because we ourselves may one day be faced with the exact and selfsame thing. . . . But certainly there is a great danger that a spirit of materialism may sweep over this land of ours, and that Christian faith from being patronized and often ignored will be actively opposed. It is well therefore that we should prepare ourselves, and that we should acquaint ourselves with the nature of this spiritual warfare. 

Citing attacks against the weak early church in Acts, Lloyd-Jones draws this conclusion:

What happens to the church collectively can happen to us individually and one by one. For we are all face to face with the same enemy, and we can emerge as triumphantly as the church did on this occasion which is recorded for us in this twelfth chapter of the book of Acts.

Fred Winters' Widow's Testimony of Forgiveness

^{The following is a living example of what John through the Spirit teaches in 1 John 3:18, Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.}