Isn't There Anyone Who Knows What Christmas is All About?

"In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

    “Glory to God in the highest

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them."  (Luke 2:1-20 ESV)

This morning, as we celebrate Christmas, I ask you: are you too busy and self-serving to worship Him?  Are you too proud and self-centered to recognize His great love for you and to give back to Him your full devotion and service?  Have you worshipped Him today as the Ancient of Days, the one that fulfilled all prophecy?  Do you recognize him as the Captain of the Hosts, almighty God?  He is your Lamb, slain to pay the price for your sin?  Is He the Great Shepherd of your life…leading you beside the still waters as well as through the valley of the shadow of death? 

A.W. Tozer is quoted as saying “What is worship? Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Are in Heaven.”

My Visit from the Jehovah's Witnesses

I was sitting in my home office working on some church "stuff" when my wife, who was resting downstairs, hollered and said someone knocked on the door.  I was a bit annoyed being bothered on a Saturday by what I presumed to be a salesman of some sort, and not a very observant one as he knocked instead of ringing the doorbell.  I took a peak through the peep hole and saw two somewhat older ladies standing at my front door with a little black book and some larger colorful magazines.  

I couldn't help but smile and knew I was about to get "witnessed" to by the Jehovah's Witnesses.  I was quite certain that colorful magazine was their precious Watchtower.  I kinda chuckled, knowing that while they were confident in their ability to argue their viewpoints with most anyone, they hated running into guys like me...guys that are every bit as grounded in Biblical doctrine and could and would challenge their every erroneous statement.  

The first thing she asked me was if I knew who the "god" of this world was.  I smiled sweetly and said I sure do, how about you.  She then proceeded to tell me that of course she did, and explained to me that the Bible said that Satan was the "god" of this world and she offered to leave me with the Watchtower so I could see why.  I told her that was quite ok; that as an ordained Baptist minister I felt I had all the resources I need to answer that question.  Her expression quickly changed and off she went.  

Interestingly enough, the Watchtower website does not use the phrase "god of this world" as the Witness at my door had, but rather "ruler" of the world.  So who really does control the world?

The Witnesses quote 1 John 5:19 which says "We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one."  The term world here refers to those outside of the first part of that verse, that is, those that are not from God; therefore, the lost.  Satan has power of the lost and the world in general, but to what extent?  1 John 5:18 says God protects those born of God and the evil one does not touch him.  

All throughout Scripture we see God using both the Elect and the lost to carry out His will.  Scripture also tells us that if we resist he devil, he will flee from us.  So while Satan may be allowed to rule the world in a general sense, the ultimate Master of this world with the final authority over what does and doesn't happen is God himself.  

It is important to understand that only God is sovereign and that Satan can do no more than what God allows.  I challenge true Christians (I may discuss later why Jehovah's Witness are not Christians) to be less concerned about Satan's temporary title of ruler of the world and worry more about introducing others to the Everlasting Ruler of All.

An ancient book in a modern world

An ancient book in a modern world:

How the Bible Should Influence our lives today

The Bible was written by approximately 40 different men over a period of 1500 years, ranging from around 1450 B.C. to about 100 A.D. The most recent writings are quite aged at at nearly 2000 years old, and much of the Old Testament by our standards would be considered ancient.

How should we read the Bible today, and what influence should it have on our lives? There many schools of thought regarding the Bible's significance today, and how it should be interpreted. Some say it is merely a good book of fables and life lessons, to be considered on the same level as Aesop's fables. Others say it is good for historical or literary study but nothing more.

Even among those professing to be believers in the Bible, there are disagreements about the interpretation and influence of God's Word. Some believe every word must be taken completely literal with no regard to whether the passage might have been written in a poetic or symbolic fashion. Others look for symbolism in every single passage regardless of how literal the context may seem.

There are those that say the Bible is the true Word of God and that we learn from it the path of salvation and some good life lessons, but that we must adapt it to fit our current culture and therefore many of the teachings of the Bible are outdated and no longer apply to our lives today. Others say we must follow every letter of the Bible, including the dietary and ritualistic laws of Israel from their days worshiping at the tabernacle and temple.

There is no way I could ever write enough to completely clear up this matter, for there is far too much content in Scripture and too many issues to tackle. Someone somewhere would have a question that I failed to cover. It is not my intention to give you a list of what to believe and not to believe. This is not a “Dummy's Guide to what the Bible really means.” What I hope to do is to give you some keys to help you begin to understand and properly apply the Bible to your life.

First of all, to truly understand what the Bible says and means, we have to know the Author. Before I start any new book of the Bible in our Adult Sunday School class, I always ask some keys questions about that particular book: who wrote it, who did he write it to, why did he write it, and what did he write about? In discussing the Bible in general, we need to ask these same questions.

Who wrote it? God did, of course. But wait, I said earlier it was written by approximately 40 different men. I could say God wrote it, those men just “penned” it. But that would not be an accurate description either, for it is quite clear they didn't just transcribe it. Paul writes very long run-on sentences. Often times you may read 5 or 6 verses before you hit a period. Paul often times emphasizes grace, James our works in response to grace. The four Gospel writers key on different details as they recount the life of Christ.

So what does the Bible say about itself? 1 Timothy 3:14 - 17 says “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

The fact that Scripture is breathed out by God means the Bible is God's infallible, inerrant word. At times, God gave the writers the exact words to write. When searching the ESV online Bible, I found the phrase “God spoke” 35 times. The phrase “God said” occurred 548 times. “Jesus spoke” occurs 9 times and “Jesus said” occurs 281 times. This doesn't include other variations such as “He commanded them” and the other instances in which the words of God is directly quoted.

While the Bible is full of direct words from God, particularly in the Old Testament and the Gospels, much of the Bible is not a direct quote. Paul was not a prophet nor a follower of the earthly ministry of Jesus; therefore, he does not heavily quote direct words from God. The book of Ester, while clearly speaking of God's sovereignty in all things, never even directly speaks of God.

The largest part of the Bible is not direct quotes from God but rather God using the writer's own vocabulary, background, experiences, and mind to produce His word. Make no mistake, this wonderful act of God using men to write His word in ways unique to each writer does not take away from the divinity of the writing. God ensured the final product was inerrant and infallible and perfectly spoke His holy Word.

There are some very serious ramifications that we have to understand once we come to realize the Bible was written by God. It is not just enough to know there is a God and that he wrote the Bible, we have to know something about Him. I obviously cannot go into everything there is to know about God, nor do I (or anyone on this side of Heaven) know everything about Him (His ways are greater than our ways). But there are some foundational truths that we must understand about God before we can hope to understand His Word.

Here is a rundown of some of those foundational truths:

• God is the Creator (Genesis 1)
• God is the sustainer (Hebrews 1:3 and Colossians 1:7)
• He is sovereign (1 Timothy 6:15)
• He is holy and exalted (Hebrews 7:26)

Before we can truly understand how to properly apply the Bible to our lives today, we first have to understand the most foundational truths: All have sinned. I have personally sinned and offended the holiness of God. The wages of sin is death. I deserve to die. Jesus Christ died to pay the price for the sin of those who will accepted Him as Lord and Savior. If you have not accepted these truths and Jesus Christ is not Lord of your life, your best application of Scripture will fall short.

You see, the key to each doctrinal discussion and debate hinges on understanding that the issues that we are trying to hammer out at their deepest core are not a matter of doctrine but of relationship. When we begin to understand that doctrine doesn't exist merely to give us something to argue over but that our doctrine should be the system of beliefs and practices that we follow because of our relationship with God, we can begin to interpret Scripture through the proper perspective.

When we come to this understanding, then we can begin to understand that we cannot interpret Scripture based on our culture. We cannot view God's Word through modern cultural ideas and perspectives, we must view God's Word through God's eyes.

This is sometimes a bit more difficult when there isn't a clear commandment to practice or abstain from something specific, or when it comes to practices of worship, dietary laws, etc. These issues become more clear when we view these passages in their context and understand their roots. For example, a study of the temple worship will reveal that each piece of the ceremonial laws were a foreshadowing of the Messiah to come, and no longer are we bound by these ceremonial laws but by the principles of proper, reverent worship of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is imperative; however, to understand that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever more. Therefore what God called sin three or four thousand years ago is still sin today. Homosexuality is still just as much of a sin today as it ever has been. We must call it what it is, a perversion of God's plan for marriage and sexuality. The same holds true for all of the standards God has laid out for holy living. Some may call the Bible an antiquated Book full of good stories, but the Bible is in fact God's holy, infallible authoritative, and powerful Word. In the end, the Word (the Bible) reveals the True Word of God (our Lord Jesus Christ).

Bold Answer to Question over Abortion

We have long been debating the "what if's" in this country when it comes to abortion.  We've all seen the discussions in society.

 "Well, maybe partial birth abortions are a bit much...but what about early ones when the baby is so small and hasn't fully developed...maybe that isn't so bad."

"What about if the women is raped...is it really fair to make her have the baby?  What about incest...wouldn't it be wrong to have that baby."  

A member of my own family, who I loved dearly but was unfortunately on the wrong side of this particular issue, once told me she would rather see a baby aborted than to be born with major birth defects that would make their life more difficult.

Many in the medical field are working on tests that would allow parents to test for all sorts of diseases and genetic defects so they can determine whether or not the baby would live.

God's Word makes it clear that life in the womb is life and it is precious and should be protected.  I will not get into politics here, but I do want to recognize one politician for speaking boldly, despite the possible votes it may cost him.  

I don't think I could sum up the reason we don't need to look for loops holes and allow abortions in the "what if" situations better than he did, other than to say God didn't provide any loop holes.

Check it out:

Oh Be Careful Little Eyes

O be careful little eyes what you see

O be careful little eyes what you see

There's a Father up above

And He's looking down in love

So, be careful little eyes what you see

As a child, I remember singing that song. It goes on to say be careful little ears what you ear, little hands what you do, little feet where you go, little mouth what you say. How we live our life is strongly influenced by what we see and hear, and then where we go and what we participate in.

This principle should apply to what we watch on TV and the movies we watch, along with many other aspects of our life. I am not saying a Christian should necessarily avoid all secular music, TV, movies, etc - unless they feel called by God to so. But we must use our ability of discernment, which is given to all believers through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, when deciding what to expose ourselves, and our children, to.

What we watch and what we filter out will often depend on the individuals role in their family and the church and the level of their maturity and understanding of Scripture. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that being spiritually mature and knowledgeable in doctrine and Scripture gives you free reign to watch filth.

However, sometimes a film comes along that portrays Christianity or God in a manner that can be dangerous to the church and the spiritually mature and doctrinally sound leaders need to watch or at least be very aware of the film so they can teach their flock and warn them of the dangers.

I recently became aware of one such film that I recommend Christians, especially parents and church leaders, be cautious of. It is called the Golden Compass. Some of the animations looked similar to the Narnia movies, particularly the polar bear, and the movie seemed interesting so we began to watch it.

It wasn't long into the movie when I realized something wasn't right.  Everyone in the movie had a "demon" that followed them around and interacted with them...and some of the demons were portrayed as cute fuzzy playful animals. They also seemed to promoting the rebellious characters in the movie as the heroes.

So I did a little research. Turns out, the movie is based on one of the books in trilogy by Philip Pullman called "His Dark Materials." A quick overview of the book would go like this...God isn't really the creator...He just somehow came out of the "dust" and was the first angel...He told all the other angels to follow He created them...and when He got old and weak he faced a rebellion from the other angels and from mankind.

By the time the trilogy is over, God is dead and two of the characters of the story re-enact the story of the garden of Eden, only this time it saves the universe rather than condemns it. One thing that makes the story so deceptive is the fact that it does make you think of C.S. Lewis and the Narnia story...but that is no accident. Pullman despised C.S. Lewis and said of the Narnia books are "one of the most ugly and poisonous things I have ever read," with "no shortage of … nauseating drivel."

Not convinced that Mr. Pullman is an enemy of Christianity? What if I told you another of his books is entitled "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ"? One of the press statements about the books reads like this:

In Pullman’s work, Jesus is a charismatic, honest speaker, who believes that the kingdom of God is imminent. Christ, on the other hand, has an eye to posterity, to the need for an organized church and to the requirements of history. “He knows that human beings, being what they are, need structures, they fall into bureaucracy. He knew that the kingdom never was going to come,” said Pullman. See this review and others here

It is important for us to remember that not all things fun, not all things popular, not even all things made for children are things we should watch, listen to, or expose our children to.

God's Amazing Grace: A New Nature

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.   Ephesians 2:1-10 

In my prior blog entry (God's Amazing Grace: Election), I discussed the doctrine of election and grace.  Because I am Southern Baptist and because I believe in divine election and what is often referred to as the eternal security of the saints (once saved, always saved), I have often been accused of believing "you can't lose your salvation no matter what you do so you believe you can just run around sinning and doing what you want."

In theory, I would agree with that.  In THEORY.  Because IF I had truly been saved and regenerated by God's grace and I was capable of a life of violence and murder then I would still find myself in Heaven with God at the end of my life.  Now before you burn me at the stake, let me finish.  

The problem with that theory is the Bible makes it very clear that if we have truly come to salvation in Christ Jesus, a complete change in nature and spirit take place.  Our new spirit is encased with the old flesh, so we still struggle with the flesh and still sin (which does not negate salvation) but our nature and lifestyle cannot be the same as it was before He changed our nature.

Do you understand the implications and the importance of the doctrine of God's divine election?  Something amazing had to take place in our life for us to become a child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Most High and Holy One.  Our nature has to totally change not just to follow Him but it has to change before we are even willing to accept the gift of grace and call out for forgiveness and seek a relationship with Him.  

Often it is taught that our salvation experience changes our nature and spirit and brings us to the relationship.  What is broken cannot repair itself.  What is dead cannot resurrect itself.  What is lost in darkness cannot find the light.  Only God has power over sin and death.  God chooses to have a relationship with His children and He changes our nature and our spirit to bring us to our salvation experience.

Paul explains in Ephesian 2 that we are saved by grace through faith and that neither the grace nor the faith come from us but that salvation is completely a work of God in our life.  When we understand that we don't earn salvation or "find God" it begins to change our perspective.  We begin to better understand the reason for our devotion to and worship of Jesus Christ.  

God's Amazing Grace: Election

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies"  Romans 8:28-33 (ESV).

We recently had a discussion in our Sunday School class about the doctrine of election and just what elections means.  Let me start off by saying this, we do not need to choke those we are sharing the Gospel message with nor new or less mature believers by trying to force feed them this doctrine.  Nor do we need to go to war with our brother's and sister's over this.

On the flip side, understanding God's sovereignty in salvation (which I like to refer to as Part One of His Amazing Grace) can be a source of strength, encouragement, and motivation, and can bring about a major change in perspective.  It is also vital that we speak truthfully about Scripture and what Scripture reveals about God and His plan. Today I just want to lay down the foundation for this monumental truth and provide an overview of this doctrine and a general defense for the doctrine of election.  We can take more time later to get deeper into the doctrine and its defense.

Romans 8 gives us the basic "flow" of salvation.  All too often today we teach this progression as someone tells you that you are a sinner and you need Christ...people keep hammering that idea into your heart...you finally realize you really are a sinner...you resist awhile longer...you finally give in to Christ...you ask for forgiveness and ask Him to "come into your heart"...He saves you.  That about sum it up?

What does Romans 8 say?  It says God foreknew...God predestined...God called...God justified...God glorified.  Who is central in the common "flow" we teach today?  The sinner and the witness.  Who is central in the Romans 8 flow?  God.

As we take a look at the actions God took in salvation, we realize that He did it all.  He foreknew us.  Scripture doesn't say that he foreknew that one day we would somehow "discover" Him or that someday we would decide to follow Him or someone would talk us into "asking Him into our heart."  He foreknew us.  When we speak of knowing God from other Scriptures we do not mean that we know Him in some sort of academic manner but that we have an intimate personal relationship with Him.  Foreknew carries the same meaning.  He established a personal intimate relationship with you personally before you were ever created.

Those who He foreknew and had an intimate relationship with, he predestined.  Predestine literally means to mark out, appoint or determine before.  What did God predestine His children for?  To be in the likeness of Christ.  And then after predestined comes called.  But notice who He called...those who He had predestined.  And once He placed the call in our life, He justified us and once justified we were glorified.  In other words, our salvation experience was not us "being saved" but it was our realization of what God had already done in our life.  It was the realization that before the foundations of the world were ever lain, God had knew us, marked us out, called us out, justified us, made us new and gave us a new heart and mind to accept His call.  

Bottom line...God's amazing grace is just that - amazing beyond comprehension and grace completely unmerited and undeserved.  The Bible says every man chooses to reject God and follow after his sinful desire, that not a single man seeks after God nor is he even able to seek God much less find him on his own.  Man is totally depraved, helpless, and hopeless...except for the fact that God in all of his power and glory and grace and mercy calls out His children and changes the heart and mind so no longer is it depraved and unable to believe and accept his gift of grace.  See the change in perspective?