Month: November 2020

13
Nov
2020

Wanting God’s Word

I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food. (Job 23:12)

I love you, O Lord.  Therefore, I love your Word.  Feed me on it.

The Bible is God’s Word. 

Many voices deny this fact.  They claim that the Bible is man’s book, not God’s book.  They claim that the Bible is culturally conditioned and, thus, suspect when it comes to addressing people today.  They claim that the Bible is full of contradictions or that the events it relates never happened.  They claim that the Bible is cruel, oppressive to women, or sexually backward.

Today the various voices against the Bible are loud and occupy the seats of power within all cultures.  The Bible stands as the most attacked and most censored book in history, and among the power brokers of Western culture, its ideas are roundly mocked and brushed aside.

But the Bible still stands as God’s Word.  Despite the efforts to discredit and dismantle Scripture, it still changes lives, brings peace, frees people from sin, reconciles enemies, puts joy in the heart, and more.  This is because the Bible is God’s Word. 

The power of the Bible is not in the book on its own but in the God who stands behind it.  The Bible has power because ultimately it comes from Christ and points to Christ.

For this reason, those who know God love the Bible.  Indeed, one of the marks of genuine faith is a love for Scripture, for if you love God, you want to know what He says.

Unfortunately, however, too many who go by name of Christian have no desire to know what God says.  They work their jobs, go to their schools, raise their children, eat, shop, play, and live life as if God has nothing to say about who they are and how they should live.  They are so busy living life that they have no time to listen to God.  They don’t even think about listening to Him.  But they consider themselves good people (churchgoing people even) and, thus, Christians.  This phenomenon is not Christianity.  You do not see it in Scripture.

But most people in church don’t know Scripture.  They don’t take time to read it, to meditate on it, and to learn from it so that they might obey it.  And so they disobey it (all along thinking they obey it) because they love other things more than they love God.  For if they had loved God, they would have taken the time to learn what He says.

The irony is that many of these people would tell you that the Bible is God’s book, but they live like the people who tell you that the Bible is man’s book.  They somehow think they revere the Bible when in reality they pay scant attention to it. 

God calls you to know Him, to love Him, and to obey Him.  From the heart.  And a heart that wants God, wants His Word. 

Posted by mdemchsak in Discipleship, 0 comments
05
Nov
2020

Jesus is Everything

Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”  (Matthew 8:21-2)

Jesus is everything or Jesus is nothing. 

He is more important to you than your mother, father, son and daughter, or you have missed Him (Mt 10:34-9).  He calls you to unwavering allegiance to Himself.

Modern Christianity has glossed over the radical nature of Jesus’ Christianity.  Modern Christianity is merely respectable.  It wants the comforts of home, the entertainment of Hollywood, the approval of society, and, oh yes, let’s throw in some Jesus too.

This is not the Christianity that turned the world upside-down.  Rather, this is the world turning Christianity upside-down.

Jesus is everything or Jesus is nothing.  Here in America we had an election this week, and the results are still unknown.,  Much of America is wringing its hands over who its next president will be.  Social media has lit up with claims of doomsday if such-and-such gets elected, and the mainstream media treats this election as if life itself hangs in the balance over who wins.  This fear shows where their hope is.  To these people, political power is everything. 

But Jesus must be everything.  If your hope lies in an election, then it does not lie in Jesus.  If politics is everything, then Jesus is not.  And if Jesus is not everything, He is nothing.  I struggle with this.  Who wouldn’t?  If you take seriously the ultimacy of Jesus, you should struggle with His call.  If you are like me, you find times when good things pull you from ultimate things – when sleep or work eats up your time with God, when sports or money becomes a priority, when family keeps your mind and time occupied.  I struggle precisely because I have good and normal desires for various earthly things, and I don’t want to place those desires under the lordship of Christ.  I want Jesus to be one good thing among many good things and not to be everything.

But Jesus is everything or Jesus is nothing.  This is why He calls us to die, to take up our Cross, to lose our life, and those who follow Him walk that path.  They may stumble while on that path, but they are on that path.  It’s hard.  But it’s good. 

For when you get Jesus, you get everything.

Posted by mdemchsak in Discipleship, 1 comment