Life Under the Cross
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
Just for anyone who is still having trouble accepting that they didn’t choose Jesus, please listen to His own words in John 6:65 – And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
Friday, February 16th, 2007
As my family and friends probably know, I’ve always been kind of a self-improvement junkie. Trying to be better at whatever I’m interested in. Most recently, my search for self-improvement lead me to ask, “What does God want me to do?” I had some stops and starts when I thought God was giving me “signs”, but I never felt like I was doing God’s will. This kind of thinking along with hearing a few times how the Bible is “God’s owner’s manual for us” clicked in me because somewhere inside I knew Christianity was more than this. Since then, I have fallen back to my Lutheran roots and come to recognize that Christianity is about my sin and Jesus’ saving work on the cross, NOT God’s right rules for living.
So, how has this helped me figure out what God wants me to do? The Lutheran doctrine of vocation is simply: God has put you where you are to live in faith toward Him and in love toward your neighbor. I found a very simple to read and practical article called “Locus and Focus: God’s Will for Your Daily Life.” Two sections that made me see more clearly:
Why do we agonize so much over God’s will? Isn’t it because we secretly think that it is up to us to please God with our own good works? But nothing could be further from the truth. It isn’t up to you to please God. This is what Grace is all about. God is already pleased with you because of Jesus’ good works, Jesus’ perfect obedience and Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus did all of this for you. In fact, God couldn’t be more pleased with you than He already is for Jesus’ sake.
But no, instead of seeing the will of God right there under my nose, in the needs of my wife, kids, family co-workers, I speculate about God’s will, I invent things to do that I think would please God. These self-invented works, no matter how much good they might do, are not good works at all. They haven’t come from faith in what Jesus has done for me to please God, but from a futile attempt to please God myself.
The above passages tell me there is nothing for me to do to please God because Jesus has already done so, but they still don’t tell me how I should act. Here’s the passage that does that:
When a Christian wants to know what God’s will is, he need look no further than to his station in life and his neighbor’s needs. This is enough to keep the Christian busy for the rest of his life. The Christian is free to turn his attention to his neighbor because the Christian no longer needs to worry about pleasing God.
We are saved because of Jesus not because of what we do, and in gratitude we help our neighbors. And where we see our neighbor in need, we see what God wants us to do.
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. —Ephesians 2:8-9
What this says is that we are saved (go to Heaven) by grace (the free and unmerited favor of God) through faith. Further, that faith isn’t from ourselves, it also is a gift from God and not because of any works we have done. Those works would include good deeds, being nice, or even professing that you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior. I know a lot of Christians will have a problem with the last statement because they believe you have to do something to do be a Christian. But that would counter the notion that Jesus’ work at the cross was sufficient for salvation (Jesus + your acceptance vs. Jesus alone). To put it simply, put all your trust in Jesus’ work on the Cross.
Friday, February 2nd, 2007
With the release of the latest IPCC paper on climate change, there is increased focus on global warming (not that there was ever any slack). On the news this morning, some S.F. Bay Area public policy official was pointing out that rising sea levels will be problematic he said bay waters had risen 7 inches in the last 100 years. Did you catch that, 7 inches in 100 years. I thought my car was the cause of global warming. If sea levels started rising 100 years ago, then it wasn’t global warming that started the rise. If global warming is causing the sea levels to rise, people aren’t causing global warming. Global warming isn’t science, it’s a political agenda.
The next time someone starts in on global warming, ask them to answer these questions:
• Has the Earth ever gone through warming and cooling periods? If so, what caused them?
• Where does the Earth get its warmth (Sun)? Does that source ever fluctuate?
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