How do you discover God’s will for your life? How can you know the decisions you are making are the right ones? When you are in doubt about what God wants you to do, what do you do? These questions and others like them have plagued believers throughout the history of Christianity. As a result, believers many times have made bad mistakes. Some of the things Christians have done through the ages in the name of Christ have ended tragically. Many times, the cause of Christ has been hurt by the actions of those who claim to love Jesus.
Much of what James discussed had to do with making godly, biblical decisions. Those who heard James’s message first were doing some things wholly inconsistent with God’s Word. James was troubled by their actions because what they were doing was creating a bad impression about God in the minds of unbelievers. When those “outside” see us on the “inside” fighting and bickering, what are they to think? When we are known by our friends and acquaintances as a Christian, what do they think of us and Christianity if no difference exists between the way we live and how they live?
For many of us, though, the issue of God’s will has to do more with things such as getting married, deciding on a career, how we use our finances, and so on. The problem with this dilemma is the effects we experience when we act without having a clear idea of what God would have us do.
When we make decisions, we will experience consequences, both good and bad. If we make a poor decision, God will expect us to bear the consequences while working our way through our decision to a better end. We must remember, God will not punish us if we decide wrongly. Neither will he excuse us for what we have done. He expects us to be both responsible and accountable. What that means is he expects us to not blame someone else or some circumstance for what we have done.
Being responsible for our decisions means we will bear the consequences in a mature way. We will not whine or quit. We will carry out our decisions in a manner befitting one who is a follower of Jesus. Being accountable means we will take responsibility for what we have done and not blame others.
What if we make an immoral decision? How do we handle the aftermath of being disobedient to God. Do we continue on in the mess we created. No. Being responsible means we will find a mature, biblical solution. We will confess our failure and seek a proper solution. We must be adult in how we handle the decisions we make.
But, how do we avoid doing the wrong thing. Praying about our choices goes without saying. Sometimes, though, God does not give us a clear answer. Why does God not “speak” to us and gives us a clear answer sometimes? Because more than prayer is required to know God’s will. We need the Bible.
Many of the issues we face in our world today, though, are not addressed directly in the Bible. For instance, fetal-cell research, abortion and same-sex marriage are not discussed in an overt way in Scripture. Yet, we are expected to take a position on these issues. How do we know what we should believe?
The answer to that question is found, paradoxically, in the Bible. We can come to informed decisions about all of life’s issues only by having a consistent discipline of personal Bible study. As we study on a regular basis, we are then able to take all the truths we learn and draw from them answers about life’s issues. For instance, 1 Corinthians 10:31 states, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” If we are making a relationship or career decision, we should ask ourselves how what we decide will reflect positively on God.
Whatever you do, do so in a manner in which God will be honored. Some careers would harm irreparably our reputation and would bring shame to the name of God. Some relationships can bring harm into our lives. If we associate with someone who is not a believer, we will be expected by them to do things clearly inconsistent with Scripture.
Making the right decision, the one consistent with God’s will for our lives, is not a hard thing to do. Knowing God’s will may require some thought, but in the end, God will show us the right way to go. Remember what James said: “But if any of you lacks wisdom (the knowledge of God’s will), let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it (wisdom) will be given to him.”
Pray, study the Bible and talk to an experienced, mature believer. Doing so will lead you to a clear understanding of God’s plan for your life.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Platforms and Principles
By constitutional design, the United States experiences a political revolution every four to eight years. Our revolutions are generally a peaceful transition from rule by one political party to another. In the late summer before the presidential election, political parties hold their conventions during which they do two important things: they present their platforms and they nominate their candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency. The candidates are the standard bearers for the party’s political program. Generally, the platform is a set of political statements expressing the presidential nominee’s positions, the party’s positions, and the “wish-lists” of the major political interest groups aligned with that particular party. The campaign for the presidency is as much about political platforms as it is about political personalities.
The platform of a political party is an expression of that party’s worldview. Democrat Party platforms tend to be liberal and are oriented to a more politically progressive philosophy; Republican Party platforms tend to be conservative and oriented to traditional American moral and political values. Even though platforms change in some respects every four years, depending on what the current political hot-button issues are, the fundamental philosophy, or worldview, undergirding the platform stays essentially the same. Worldviews tend to remain constant; they undergo few changes over time. The reason worldviews rarely change is because they are rooted in values. To change one’s values is indeed a revolutionary event.
We believers have our own “life-platform;” we are expressing in our lifestyles what we believe are the currently important issues for us. Searching for a job/career, a spouse, a place to live, a church, etc. are all parts of our life platform. When we find a job, that part of our platform is readjusted. We then must decide to what degree we will try to advance professionally; what level of income we desire; what our work conditions will be; and so on. Yet, underlying our platform is a set of values.
Sometimes, we find our values to be inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture. One of the events occurring in most of our lives, proving to be a challenge to some of our values, is the competition arising among the various planks of our platform. What do we do when family and job compete for time and resources? For a while, our job may be the number one priority in our lives. Then, we get married and find our relationship with our spouse and the demands of that relationship are in conflict with our commitment to our job. How will we resolve that dilemma? Scripture gives us guidance in both areas. What we might find is our career values are in conflict with biblical admonitions; or, our family values may fall short of the biblical principles regarding marriage and family. So, in such cases, we should look deeply at our values and attempt to align them with biblical teachings. We find peace in that process.
When James and the other Bible writers authored their works, they typically were addressing the disconnects between what the people of God were doing and what God expected of them. In James, the writer was addressing a group of people whose conduct in many ways was inconsistent with the biblical ethic. James showed how favoring one person over another was to compromise the integrity of the Law. He also pointed out the inconsistency in saying two things wholly in conflict with one another. Can a fig tree produce an olive, a vine a fig, or a spring both fresh and bitter water, James asked?
While James probably would not have used the word worldview, he did have that concept in mind. He argued believers always should be analyzing their conduct to determine if what they were doing was consistent with what they professed to believe. Further, he was concerned for his readers to understand what the Word of God expected from those who claimed to be living according to biblical precepts. One’s conduct may be wrong because one misunderstands or ignores what the Law of God teaches.
We cannot go through life, anymore than James’s first readers could, with a casual attitude about what we believe. We must always be attempting to determine if what we believe really is what the Bible teaches. Also, we must ask ourselves constantly if what we are doing is consistent with what we say we believe.
Political parties are notorious for compromising their platforms and the underlying political philosophies they are supposed to believe. They do so for the sake of political expediency, power and advantage. We, on the other hand, cannot afford to compromise at any point. Unlike political parties, we cannot rationalize our values for selfish reasons. To do so is arrogance. To do so is to insult God.
The platform of a political party is an expression of that party’s worldview. Democrat Party platforms tend to be liberal and are oriented to a more politically progressive philosophy; Republican Party platforms tend to be conservative and oriented to traditional American moral and political values. Even though platforms change in some respects every four years, depending on what the current political hot-button issues are, the fundamental philosophy, or worldview, undergirding the platform stays essentially the same. Worldviews tend to remain constant; they undergo few changes over time. The reason worldviews rarely change is because they are rooted in values. To change one’s values is indeed a revolutionary event.
We believers have our own “life-platform;” we are expressing in our lifestyles what we believe are the currently important issues for us. Searching for a job/career, a spouse, a place to live, a church, etc. are all parts of our life platform. When we find a job, that part of our platform is readjusted. We then must decide to what degree we will try to advance professionally; what level of income we desire; what our work conditions will be; and so on. Yet, underlying our platform is a set of values.
Sometimes, we find our values to be inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture. One of the events occurring in most of our lives, proving to be a challenge to some of our values, is the competition arising among the various planks of our platform. What do we do when family and job compete for time and resources? For a while, our job may be the number one priority in our lives. Then, we get married and find our relationship with our spouse and the demands of that relationship are in conflict with our commitment to our job. How will we resolve that dilemma? Scripture gives us guidance in both areas. What we might find is our career values are in conflict with biblical admonitions; or, our family values may fall short of the biblical principles regarding marriage and family. So, in such cases, we should look deeply at our values and attempt to align them with biblical teachings. We find peace in that process.
When James and the other Bible writers authored their works, they typically were addressing the disconnects between what the people of God were doing and what God expected of them. In James, the writer was addressing a group of people whose conduct in many ways was inconsistent with the biblical ethic. James showed how favoring one person over another was to compromise the integrity of the Law. He also pointed out the inconsistency in saying two things wholly in conflict with one another. Can a fig tree produce an olive, a vine a fig, or a spring both fresh and bitter water, James asked?
While James probably would not have used the word worldview, he did have that concept in mind. He argued believers always should be analyzing their conduct to determine if what they were doing was consistent with what they professed to believe. Further, he was concerned for his readers to understand what the Word of God expected from those who claimed to be living according to biblical precepts. One’s conduct may be wrong because one misunderstands or ignores what the Law of God teaches.
We cannot go through life, anymore than James’s first readers could, with a casual attitude about what we believe. We must always be attempting to determine if what we believe really is what the Bible teaches. Also, we must ask ourselves constantly if what we are doing is consistent with what we say we believe.
Political parties are notorious for compromising their platforms and the underlying political philosophies they are supposed to believe. They do so for the sake of political expediency, power and advantage. We, on the other hand, cannot afford to compromise at any point. Unlike political parties, we cannot rationalize our values for selfish reasons. To do so is arrogance. To do so is to insult God.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
More on Arrogance
By now, you all should have recovered from our hike on Sunday. As things turned out, the trail we took was quite challenging. All those steps! You all did well and made it through the whole hike. Then again, what would you have done if you had decided to quit halfway through the hike. Its not like there was an elevator to the top. Sometimes, giving up is not an option.
During lunch, Chris raised a question about Cain’s wife: where did she come from? I gave you an abbreviated answer. Later, Chris and Beth asked me about dinosaurs in the context of the creation story in Genesis 1. I told him I might take a Sunday or two and discuss some questions about creation. Staying with our study in James, though, seems to me to be a more important issue, but I do want to share some of my thoughts about creation and the early earth. So, here’s what I’ll do. For those of you who are interested, I will post some articles over the next week or so about creation on another of my blogs, http://hermeneian.blogspot.com. On 2collide-2collide is a link to this blog and one other.
Now, back to James. In our last study in James, we looked at James 3.1 and arrogance. We will be continuing the study in chapter 3 this next Sunday. We’ll look at 3.1-12. I think I’ll cover that whole section in our study. The main emphasis in this part of James is speaking in an idle, careless and thoughtless manner. James wanted his readers to see two things. First, his intent for his readers was for them to understand the inherent contradiction for believers in careless speech. Second, he wanted them to see the danger in that practice.
As we considered the concept of arrogance in our last study, we used some examples of high-profile individuals from our popular culture whose speech is characterized by arrogance. Remember some important implications of arrogance. An arrogant person is proud, condescending contentious and contemptuous of others.
Arrogance communicates a fundamentally unbiblical attitude about God and other persons. An arrogant persons is a superior-minded person; he believes everyone else is less valuable and important than he. An arrogant person is contemptuous of God and only superficially considers or disregards the Lord altogether in his planning. Indeed, the height of arrogance is to ignore God and his expectations.
In James 3, the use of the tongue is the human mannerism the author used to highlight the dangers and paradox of arrogance. Throughout the Bible, simple human attributes, the tongue, the stomach, the eyes and the hands, are often used to illustrate greater truths. Even more important, how these simple features are used, their importance in the life of a person, point to greater truths. In an extreme statement, Jesus suggested gouging out our eyes or cutting off our hands if they lead us into sin. His point was for believers to go to the most extreme lengths to exercise control in their lives. Surely, Jesus was not teaching self-mutilation. He did say, though, we are to do whatever is required to stop any activity or thought leading us into ungodliness.
Paul used another metaphor. He said, in 1 Corinthians 9.25-27, “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” No one is so good and committed as to be exempt from exercising self-control in his life. To fail to do so, to believe one is good enough, is arrogance in the extreme.
Among those to whom James wrote, arrogance was a real issue. Some lived their lives oblivious to their own arrogant sinfulness. Others were teetering on the brink of arrogance (see James 2.1-6). Many times, we are as James’s readers: we are unthinkingly judgmental about others. We decide some are worthy and some are not. We use a number of criteria, social, economic, ethnic, racial, etc., as the basis of our evaluations of others. At times, we do so unconsciously, at others, we are intentional. In all cases we are arrogant. James will help us overcome this problem.
During lunch, Chris raised a question about Cain’s wife: where did she come from? I gave you an abbreviated answer. Later, Chris and Beth asked me about dinosaurs in the context of the creation story in Genesis 1. I told him I might take a Sunday or two and discuss some questions about creation. Staying with our study in James, though, seems to me to be a more important issue, but I do want to share some of my thoughts about creation and the early earth. So, here’s what I’ll do. For those of you who are interested, I will post some articles over the next week or so about creation on another of my blogs, http://hermeneian.blogspot.com. On 2collide-2collide is a link to this blog and one other.
Now, back to James. In our last study in James, we looked at James 3.1 and arrogance. We will be continuing the study in chapter 3 this next Sunday. We’ll look at 3.1-12. I think I’ll cover that whole section in our study. The main emphasis in this part of James is speaking in an idle, careless and thoughtless manner. James wanted his readers to see two things. First, his intent for his readers was for them to understand the inherent contradiction for believers in careless speech. Second, he wanted them to see the danger in that practice.
As we considered the concept of arrogance in our last study, we used some examples of high-profile individuals from our popular culture whose speech is characterized by arrogance. Remember some important implications of arrogance. An arrogant person is proud, condescending contentious and contemptuous of others.
Arrogance communicates a fundamentally unbiblical attitude about God and other persons. An arrogant persons is a superior-minded person; he believes everyone else is less valuable and important than he. An arrogant person is contemptuous of God and only superficially considers or disregards the Lord altogether in his planning. Indeed, the height of arrogance is to ignore God and his expectations.
In James 3, the use of the tongue is the human mannerism the author used to highlight the dangers and paradox of arrogance. Throughout the Bible, simple human attributes, the tongue, the stomach, the eyes and the hands, are often used to illustrate greater truths. Even more important, how these simple features are used, their importance in the life of a person, point to greater truths. In an extreme statement, Jesus suggested gouging out our eyes or cutting off our hands if they lead us into sin. His point was for believers to go to the most extreme lengths to exercise control in their lives. Surely, Jesus was not teaching self-mutilation. He did say, though, we are to do whatever is required to stop any activity or thought leading us into ungodliness.
Paul used another metaphor. He said, in 1 Corinthians 9.25-27, “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” No one is so good and committed as to be exempt from exercising self-control in his life. To fail to do so, to believe one is good enough, is arrogance in the extreme.
Among those to whom James wrote, arrogance was a real issue. Some lived their lives oblivious to their own arrogant sinfulness. Others were teetering on the brink of arrogance (see James 2.1-6). Many times, we are as James’s readers: we are unthinkingly judgmental about others. We decide some are worthy and some are not. We use a number of criteria, social, economic, ethnic, racial, etc., as the basis of our evaluations of others. At times, we do so unconsciously, at others, we are intentional. In all cases we are arrogant. James will help us overcome this problem.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Thoughts on Arrogance
Most of us do not think of ourselves as being arrogant. We typically attribute arrogance to those who are prideful and ego-centric. We do not want to be seen as contemptuous of or condescending to others. Unkind, uncaring and insensitive persons are arrogant. Not us.
Yet, we may be more arrogant than we think. James said, “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” Are our actions always consistent with our words. At Gateway this past Sunday, we all confessed in the decision time, “Jesus is everything.” Well, is he everything to us? Does he matter more to us than anyone or anything else in all the world?
All of us have gone through a moment in time when we publicly professed Jesus as Savior and Lord (I hope you all have done that). Now, many times, we do not consider the implications of such a commitment. Too often, we have “things” in our lives blocking our view of Jesus. We say we love Jesus, yet, we do not express our love for him as consistently as we should. Is that not arrogance?
Let’s consider, for a moment, how love is defined in Scripture. Biblically, love is not primarily an emotional thing. Love, first and foremost, is a commitment of oneself unalterably to someone else. When we declare our love for God or our love for a person, we are committing ourselves to an unchanging, unfailing loyalty to the one loved. We are declaring no one or no thing will come between us and the one we love.
Can you see how easy being arrogant is? If we say we love Jesus, yet, allow some other priority in our lives to interfere with our obedience to the Lord, we are treating Jesus with contempt. We are making him less important than he really is; we are being contemptuous of him. We do not have to put ourselves in a position of authority to obligate ourselves to greater judgment (see Jam. 3.1). In fact, as a believer, we are indeed “teachers” of others. We are to model Christian behavior to those in our world who are not believers. If we profess to be followers of Jesus, but do not follow him in our public and private behavior, are we not arrogant and calling down upon ourselves a greater judgment?
Being consistent in our lives is a major issue. We must have a high level of agreement in the way we live between what we have said we believe and how we act. I mentioned Sunday morning the Christian pollster George Barna. In his latest book, he argues people between 18-25 are more concerned with how they feel about an issue than the fundamental truth of the issue. I believe such an attitude is really inter-generational. No one age group has cornered the market on feeling versus fact. We are all motivated by our own desire for comfort.
For instance, Francis Schaeffer, a theologian of the 70s and 80s, said Ronald Reagan was elected President, not because most people were politically or socially conservative, but because Reagan offered them the greatest hope of personal peace and prosperity. Are those two motives not feeling-based? Are we not, as followers of Jesus, supposed to come down on the side of commitment and not convenience? Every account in the New Testament of Jesus calling someone to follow him meant inconvenience for that person if he chose to leave what he was doing and become a disciple.
Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” Following Jesus does not always feel good, is not always convenient and many times will conflict with our list of personal priorities. Yet, when we confess Jesus as Lord, we are committing ourselves to go where he leads and do what he tells us to do. Anything less is arrogance. To ignore the commands of Jesus because of personal interests is to be contemptuous of the Lord and treat him as if he does not matter at all.
Does Jesus mean more than any one or anything else to us? Does he matter most? Beginning with Andrew and his brother Peter, those who have been summoned by Jesus to total discipleship have been faced always with the demand both to say and to do the truth.
Yet, we may be more arrogant than we think. James said, “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” Are our actions always consistent with our words. At Gateway this past Sunday, we all confessed in the decision time, “Jesus is everything.” Well, is he everything to us? Does he matter more to us than anyone or anything else in all the world?
All of us have gone through a moment in time when we publicly professed Jesus as Savior and Lord (I hope you all have done that). Now, many times, we do not consider the implications of such a commitment. Too often, we have “things” in our lives blocking our view of Jesus. We say we love Jesus, yet, we do not express our love for him as consistently as we should. Is that not arrogance?
Let’s consider, for a moment, how love is defined in Scripture. Biblically, love is not primarily an emotional thing. Love, first and foremost, is a commitment of oneself unalterably to someone else. When we declare our love for God or our love for a person, we are committing ourselves to an unchanging, unfailing loyalty to the one loved. We are declaring no one or no thing will come between us and the one we love.
Can you see how easy being arrogant is? If we say we love Jesus, yet, allow some other priority in our lives to interfere with our obedience to the Lord, we are treating Jesus with contempt. We are making him less important than he really is; we are being contemptuous of him. We do not have to put ourselves in a position of authority to obligate ourselves to greater judgment (see Jam. 3.1). In fact, as a believer, we are indeed “teachers” of others. We are to model Christian behavior to those in our world who are not believers. If we profess to be followers of Jesus, but do not follow him in our public and private behavior, are we not arrogant and calling down upon ourselves a greater judgment?
Being consistent in our lives is a major issue. We must have a high level of agreement in the way we live between what we have said we believe and how we act. I mentioned Sunday morning the Christian pollster George Barna. In his latest book, he argues people between 18-25 are more concerned with how they feel about an issue than the fundamental truth of the issue. I believe such an attitude is really inter-generational. No one age group has cornered the market on feeling versus fact. We are all motivated by our own desire for comfort.
For instance, Francis Schaeffer, a theologian of the 70s and 80s, said Ronald Reagan was elected President, not because most people were politically or socially conservative, but because Reagan offered them the greatest hope of personal peace and prosperity. Are those two motives not feeling-based? Are we not, as followers of Jesus, supposed to come down on the side of commitment and not convenience? Every account in the New Testament of Jesus calling someone to follow him meant inconvenience for that person if he chose to leave what he was doing and become a disciple.
Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” Following Jesus does not always feel good, is not always convenient and many times will conflict with our list of personal priorities. Yet, when we confess Jesus as Lord, we are committing ourselves to go where he leads and do what he tells us to do. Anything less is arrogance. To ignore the commands of Jesus because of personal interests is to be contemptuous of the Lord and treat him as if he does not matter at all.
Does Jesus mean more than any one or anything else to us? Does he matter most? Beginning with Andrew and his brother Peter, those who have been summoned by Jesus to total discipleship have been faced always with the demand both to say and to do the truth.
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