TILL HE COMES Blog

It often happens in the Christian life, that after the blessing comes the battle. After the mountain top comes the valley. After feeling so close to God, there comes a time when you feel so very far away from God. Sometimes, the greatest temptations follows the greatest victories. The greatest trials follow the biggest triumphs. This is true of most of the great leaders of Scripture.

Elijah
Remember Elijah? He went to Mt. Carmel to have a contest of gods. He took on the 450 prophets of Baal. And if you have read the story in 1 Kings 18, you remember that it was a great victory and a great display of power for the Only True God in Heaven, and Elijah was so excited that, on his way back to town, he was able to outrun the horses pulling the chariot. But then, only one chapter later, in 1 Kings 19, we see Elijah as low as he has ever been. He’s hiding out in the desert wishing he could die.

Paul
The Apostle Paul is another example.  He received a revelation from God on the road to Damascus and believed in Jesus for eternal life.

According to Acts 9:20, Paul immediately tried to start a ministry to his Jewish brethren. It says he was winning arguments and debates with them. But even though he was winning debates, he wasn’t winning any people. Instead, he almost got himself killed. So he fled to Arabia for three years, probably to study Scripture in light of his new belief that Jesus was the Messiah (Gal 1:17-18). Then, after three years, he probably decided he was ready for ministry again, and so he returned to Damascus and then went to Jerusalem to see if he could help the apostles in their work. But the disciples there wouldn’t trust him (Acts 9:26). Nevertheless, he went out and tried to start a ministry to the Hellenistic Jews in Jerusalem. But again, the only fruit of his ministry was that he kept making people mad, and he almost got killed again (Acts 9:29). The apostles decided they had to get rid of him, so they sent him off to Tarsus.

The account in Acts 9 is very humorous. It says that after they sent Paul away, the church began to prosper (9:31).

Can you imagine what Paul is feeling? Jesus Christ told him on the road to Damascus that he was going to be used greatly by God, but every time Paul tried to be used by God, all he did was cause problems and make people angry, to the point that even the apostles didn’t want him around. And it is only after he leaves, that the church begins to prosper! And so what did Paul do? Well, he served, quietly, in a church, in the boondocks of Tarsus. For 14 years he was there. He was unknown (Gal 1:22). He was unrecognized. People forgot about him. He probably began to think that God had forgotten about him too.

But God had not forgotten. God sent Paul to Tarsus, I am convinced, to teach him humility. To teach him how to get victory over his temptation of pride. God put Paul on the back burner for 17 years in order to teach Paul how to speak the truth in love. And when, after 17 years, Paul had learned this lesson in the wilderness of Arabia and backwaters of Tarsus, God said to Paul, “OK, now you are ready to be used.” And Paul did turn the world upside down for God. But he had to spend time in the wilderness learning getting molded by God.

Jesus
Even Jesus was not immune to such wilderness refinement and preparation. The first four chapters of Luke are all about Jesus’ preparation for ministry. Chapter 1 contains the events leading up to His birth. Chapter 2 relates His birth and an event during His childhood years. In chapter 3, He was prepared for ministry through the baptism of John and the affirmation of God the Father.

This baptism was a mountaintop experience for Jesus. He came up out of the water after being baptized by John, and God thundered out of heaven, “You is my beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

But rather then immediately launch into a successful ministry, the Spirit takes Jesus out into the desert, not to the adoring multitudes. Immediately following the blessing is the battle. Jesus goes from the heights to the depths. From the lush banks of the Jordan and hearing the voice of God, to the barren wasteland of the wilderness, where He is confronted and tested by the devil.

You Too
All of us experience such wilderness times in our own life. And if you haven’t, you will. Your spiritual life and ministry landscape will become hot, barren, and dry. Sometimes, this lasts a day or two, or maybe a month or more. Sometimes it lasts years.

When you find yourself in the wilderness, realize that such periods help you gain strength, maturity, and humility. Use these times to gain victory over temptation and sin. Grow in your knowledge of God and His Word. And wait patiently on God. When the time is right, He will raise you up, restore you to life, and through you, advance the Kingdom of God.

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 4:1-13.

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I’m sure it’s just me…but I sometimes panic when I realize how few books I will read during my life. There’s so much to read and so little time! Is there a phobia for this…The fear of not being able to read?

Look at it this way: The average reader reads only four books per year. Over the course of a lifetime of 80 years (with reading taking place between the ages 15 and 95), this would be only 320 books!  

But let’s say you read more. Let’s say you are an avid reader, and can read one book a week, or about 50 books per year. Over the 80 years of reading, that is still only 4000 books! That’s about how many books I already have in my personal library! So even if I never buy another book, I will not be able to read all the books I already own. That’s depressing…

And yet, every time the Christian Book Distributor Catalogue comes, I find another book or two that I want to read.

So I guess the lesson for me is that I must carefully select the books I read. Every time I pick up a book, I ask myself, is this a book that I want as one of my 4000? It makes me sad to think of some of the pointless books I’ve read. Maybe I need to become a speed reader so I can read a book in eight minutes…

Anyway, below are some books I am glad I have read, and may even read again, thereby taking up not just one, but two spots on my list of 4000 books. These books have shaped my thinking in amazing ways. In the future, if I read some list-worthy books, I will include them in the comments.

-The Bible…I know, I know. Do I really have to say it? But it should be one of the books you read regularly, which over the course of your life, will take up multiple spots on your list…80 spots or more if you read it annually.

-Reign of the Servant Kings, by Joseph Dillow
-Transforming Mission, by David Bosch
-The Grace Awakening, by Chuck Swindoll
-The Grace NT Commentary on James, by Zane Hodges
-Expository Preaching, by John MacArthur
-All books by CS Lewis
-Orthodoxy, by GK Chesterton
-The Gutter, by Craig Gross
-God at War, by Greg Boyd
-Satan and the Problem of Evil, by Greg Boyd
-The Shaping of Things to Come, by Frost and Hirsch
-The Forgotten Ways, by Alan Hirsch
-The Last Word, by NT Wright
-Jesus, and the Victory of God, by NT Wright
-The Other Side of Calvinism, by Laurence Vance
-Beyond Calvinism and Arminianism, by C. Gordon Olson

That’s all I can think of right now off the top of my head. By including these books on this list, I am not saying I agree with everything written in them. All I am saying is that these books stretched my mind, and brought about paradigm shifts in my life and thinking. A few of them caused earthquakes.

Feel free to post your own suggestions below. Oh, and by the way, novels are okay as well. Novels can sometimes shape your life and theology more than a book on theology. One of the novels I am glad I have read is Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card. I’m not really into Sci-fi novels, but it was so good, I read it twice.

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If Jesus came to be the savior of the world, why did he spend the first 30 years of his life doing nothing? There were people to heal! Scriptures to teach! Miracles to perform!

Imagine all the people who probably died, right there in the region of Galilee, during those 30 years, without ever hearing the Gospel! Without ever knowing that the Savior of the world was there, living just a few miles away! Why would Jesus “waste” 30 years of His life when so much ministry could have been done?

All of us who are called to preach, teach, and serve others feel the same way from time to time. “I can’t wait another five years! I have so much to teach! So many ideas! There are so many people all around me who need to hear the Gospel. I’ve got books to write, minds to change, people to serve! If I don’t do it now, I never will!”

For some people, that may be true. Maybe God does want you to get out there and get to work right away. But I think that for most of us, including Jesus (and Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, etc), there is something God does in our lives during the “back burner” years that cannot be accomplished any other way.

I love how William Barclay explains all this (Luke 1975:39f). The quote is long, but it’s worth reading (Let me tell you…it hit me HARD today).

This passage begins with the most suggestive statement. It tells us that when Jesus began his ministry he was not less than about thirty years of age. Why did he spend thirty years in Nazareth when he had come to be the savior of the world? It is commonly said that Joseph died fairly young and that Jesus had to take upon himself the support of Mary and of his younger brothers and sisters, and that not until they were old enough to take the business on their own shoulders, did he feel free to leave Nazareth and go into the wider world. Whether that be so or not, three things are true.

(1) It was essential that Jesus should carry out with the utmost fidelity the more limited tasks of family duty before he could take up the universal task of saving the world. It was by his conscientiousness in the performance of the narrow duties of home that Jesus fitted himself for the great task he had to do. …It was because Jesus faithfully performed the smallest duties that the greatest task in all the world was given him.

(2) It gave him the opportunity to live out his own teaching. Had he always been a homeless, wandering teacher with no human ties or obligations, men might have said to him, “What right have you to talk about human duties and human relationships, you, who never fulfilled them?” But Jesus was able to say, not, “Do as I say,” but, “Do as I have done.”

Tolstoi was a man who always talked about living the way of love; but his wife wrote poignantly of him, “There is so little genuine warmth about him; his kindness does not come from the heart, but merely from his principles. His biographies will tell of how he helped the laborers to carry buckets of water, but no one will ever know that he never gave his wife a rest and never—in all these thirty-two years—gave his child a drink of water or spent five minutes by his bedside to give me a chance to rest a little from all my labors.” No one could ever speak like that of Jesus. He lived at home what he preached abroad.

(3) If Jesus was to help men he had to know how men lived. And because he spent these thirty years in Nazareth, he knew the problems of making a living, the haunting insecurity of the life of the working man, the ill-natured customer, the man who would not pay his debts. It is the glory of the incarnation that we face no problem of life and living which Jesus did not also face.

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 3:23-38.

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Who do we look to for solutions to life’s problems? Who do we look to for answers to life’s questions and issues? Politicians? Religious leaders? Fox news correspondents? Radio show hosts? Hollywood? Sports starts? Pop singers? Oprah? Glen Beck?

And if your answer is “God” or “the Bible,” whose understanding of God and the Bible do you go by?

Maybe the real question we should be asking ourselves is, “Who does God gives the answers and solutions to?”

For that question, Luke 3:1-14 provides an interesting answer. In these verses, Luke reveals that God’s solutions to life’s questions and problems did not come from rulers or religious leaders or those with power, prominence, money, and authority. Instead, the word of God came through a poor and relatively unknown man living in the wilderness: John.

It is John who showed the people how to live under the rule of a corrupt government and religious system. It is John who explained to the people how to live lives of generosity, honesty, and integrity.  He was a nobody, but God used Him to call the people back to God’s way of living.

Do you know a “John” today? I know some people who might fit the bill, but you don’t know them, and that’s the whole point. It is partly due to their lack of fame and power that qualifies them. They don’t live in mansions, ride in limousines, or appear on TV. But God uses them to bring wisdom into my life. A few of them aren’t even Christians (*Gasp*)!

Who do you have tha that God uses to speak to you? If you don’t have somebody, don’t look to TV or D.C. Instead, find someone who is weak, despised, and foolish (1 Cor 1:27-28), and hang out with them. You never know…maybe you’ll find your John.

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 3:1-6 and Luke 3:7-14.

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Please pray for a friend of mine named Patrick. He is Haitian, and so far, has over 40 family members who were killed this week by the earthquake in Haiti.

Some of them actually lived here in the states, but were down there for a mission trip. The hotel they were staying in collapsed, and all of them died. Both he and his wife lost their parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins…pretty much everybody.

One thing to be thankful for is that his wife and three children did not go on the mission trip, and so they are safe.

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Jesus and His family were poor. In the commentary on Luke 2:21-24, I point out how Joseph and Mary make the redemption offering for poor people. The same was true when Mary went to offer the purification offering for herself (Side note: though poor, she still sacrificed and obeyed God. Being poor was not an excuse for disobedience.)

But why does it matter if Jesus was poor or rich?

In my study today on Luke 4:18 (not yet posted), I looked into how the first mission task of Jesus was “to preach the gospel to the poor.” It should go without saying (but sadly it doesn’t) that “the poor” were poor people; not rich people who were “spiritually poor” (as often preached in many churches.) The word used there refers primarily to beggars.

It is important to recognize that Jesus was physically poor (cf. 2 Cor 8:9), because this means that when He “proclaimed the gospel” to the poor, He was ministering among His own people. He was not some rich person proclaiming spiritual platitudes to “lift the hearts of the poor.” Poor people don’t need their hearts lifted as much as they need their bellies filled.

Jesus ministered among people He could identify with.

I don’t think the point for us is that we all need to become poor. All of us, I’m sure, could be more generous then we are to help meet the needs of others, but that is not the proper trajectory for this idea of Jesus being poor. Instead, the point is that for ministry effectiveness, it helps to minister among those we can identify with. For example, a sports fanatic shouldn’t try to minister to bookworms, and vice versa.

So what are your experiences? Where have you had trials and hardships in life? Are there other people around you who have experienced the same thing? Maybe God wants you to minister to them.

If you have some ministry ideas, post them below in the comments.

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Tomorrow is election day. Those of us who vote do so in the hopes that if we get the right people in the right position so they can change the world for the better. However, in recent years, it has been easy to get  jaded as it seems that no matter who gets into office, no problems are fixed and things just keep getting worse. 

I am not saying we should stay out of politics or throw up our hands in despair. But maybe we are losing hope because our hope was misplaced to begin with. As Christians, we should not be hoping in politicians and governments.

And no, I am NOT saying that instead, we should put our hope in Jesus. This is true, of course, but it’s too easy to say, and much harder to apply. How do you “put your hope in Jesus” for millions of people without health insurance? How do you “put your hope in Jesus” for millions of unemployed people? How do you “put your hope in Jesus” for millions of people without food and homes?

As I was walking through a parking lot yesterday, I saw a bumper sticker which read, “Jesus is the answer.” But that depends on the question. There are lots of questions where “Jesus” is not the answer. There are lots of issues where “Jesus” is not the solution. At least, not quite so easily as that.

Let me explain. Rather, let Mary explain.

In my commentary on Luke 1:46-55, I write about the song Mary sings after she is told she will give birth to the Messiah. Mostly, the song is about the Messiah. But I argue briefly that the center of the song seems to be 1:50, that from generation to generation, God’s mercy will be on those who fear Him. It’s a hinge verse, where verses 46-49 are about how God has used her, and verses 51-55 are about how He can use anyone else in a similar way.

As she expands and explains this concept in the rest of her song, Mary shows over and over that God does not work through the rich, powerful, and elite, but through the poor, humble, and hungry. And this is not just true in her own generation with the coming of the Messiah, but for every generation. That includes ours.

So the song is really about how God gets things done in this world. And the answer is that he does not primarily use presidents, senators, investment bankers, and movie stars, but WalMart checkers, stay-at-home moms, construction workers, mail carriers, farmers, and McDonald’s hamburger flippers. Anybody who fears God (i.e., respectfully obeys Him) can be used by God to turn this world upside down. Yes, bankers and senators can be part of that, but that’s not the point. The point is this: WE can help feed and clothe people. WE can help teach people. WE can help people live better, healthy lives. WE can provide clean water. It’s not THEIR job. It’s OUR job. If we fear God, if we want to obey Him, it is what WE will do.

Don’t put such things off on Jesus, especially when He has told US to do it. And definitely don’t put it off on politicians. 

Mary saw a world, led by Jesus, where everybody worked to feed the poor, heal the sick, clothe the naked, touch the brokenhearted, and love the unlovable. That’s what she sang about. That’s what she longed for.  No matter who gets into office tomorrow, let’s work together to make Mary’s world a reality.

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I am certain this post will get me some worried comments about my further slide into heresy. So let me say it clearly: “I do believe God exists! I believe there is a God, as revealed to us through nature, our conscience, Jesus, and Scripture.”

Now, on with my post.

I was recently having a discussion with a friend of mine who doesn’t believe God exists. He gave me some interesting books to read, which, in the format of a novel, present “god” and “satan” as highly evolved energy-based life forms. He believes there is a “force” out there, but it is not “god.” Instead, there are only ”aliens” who tweaked the evolutionary process on earth, and have been “playing” with us ever since.

So he says he doesn’t believe in “god.”

I asked him why he doesn’t believe in “god” but does believe in an advanced species of energy-based life forms.

He replied, “I just can’t believe in a god who kills innocent people, and slaughterers the Canaanites, and sends prophets and preachers who condemn gay people while secretly raping little boys and stealing money. The god we read about in the Bible tells us to obey the government no matter what, and pay our taxes so our armies can go steal the oil and wealth of other countries, and imprison innocent people. I don’t believe in a god who can create humans to live forever, but then decides to create of place of pain, suffering, and torture for billions of them to live in forever. And then in light of all this, he calls himself ‘good.’ If that is god, he sounds more like the devil.”

I think he was waiting for me to defend my belief in God. But I only looked at him, nodded my head in agreement, and said, “Yes, I don’t believe that god exists either.”

I certainly believe in God, but I don’t believe in the god my friend described. I don’t believe that kind of god exists. Also, I don’t believe that the god held forth by most of modern “Christianity” exists either. I certainly believe God exists; but not that god.

Which raises the question: Since I am certain that some of my beliefs about God are incorrect and inaccurate, does the God I believe in actually exist? How much of our view of God must be correct before we can say we are believing in the God who truly exists? (A similar question could be asked about Jesus. Lots of Christians accuse others of believing in the “wrong Jesus.” Some people believe in Jesus, but their views of Jesus are so warped from the real Jesus, that the Jesus they believe in doesn’t (or didn’t) actually exist. But none of us are 100% accurate in our beliefs about Jesus either, so does that mean we are believing in the wrong Jesus?)

What do you think about all this? Are these sorts of questions just a result of the effect of Platonic Dualism on our thinking (where all we know about God is some sort of dim reflection of reality) mixed with Hindu Brahmanism (where the most we can say about God is what he is not)? Also, what can you say or do to show a person who doesn’t believe in God that there is actually a God worth believing in? How can we show them that the God they don’t believe in is (most likely) not the God of the Bible?

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It’s popular in Christian circles today to talk about creating community. It is argued that one of the greatest things lacking in most of our churches is a sense of community, that we all belong, and are headed somewhere together — and actually enjoying each other’s company as we do it!

Whole books are written about how to develop this community within your church. Church planters talk about founding communities of faith, hope, and love. Many churches will even put the word “community” in their name.

However, the more I read the Scriptures, the more I get this strange feeling that Jesus never really intended to create a community. Instead, my reading of the Gospels leads me to believe that Jesus never intended to found a new community and ask people to join it, but rather to find already-existing communities, and join with them. So he went to synagogues (the teaching centers), weddings, dinner parties, watering holes, and join in the community that had already naturally developed.

There were, of course, always problems in such communities, and Jesus frequently tried to heal the brokenness and pain that was present in the community. But this is a more natural way of developing community than by putting together a bunch of strangers and saying, “Now get along!”

So are you trying to “plant a church” or “reach out” to your community? How about rather than starting something of your own and asking them to join you, why don’t you find out what God is already doing in your community, and then see how you join them. Don’t try to found the community; just find the one that is already there.

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Have you ever experienced a “Dark Night of the Soul”? When God seems silent, the Bible seems devoid of meaning, every day seems to grow blacker, and other Christians seems like aliens from another planet? In such times, you will often experience doubts and fears about things that you never would have doubted or feared in times of blessing and being close to God.

In these times, you will often hear Christians say, “Don’t doubt in the dark what God revealed in the light.”  In other words, if God taught you something, or gave you a vision for your life in a time of blessing and being close to God, then don’t doubt these things in times of darkness, difficulty, and depression.

I’ve gone through several “Dark Nights” in my life. And while I used to believe this “Don’t doubt in the dark” slogan, I am beginning to question it’s wisdom. In the first place, who defines “dark”? Isn’t it the storms of life, and times of feeling distant from God that are able to make us cry out for Him even more, and learn to trust Him even more? Such times can, of course, drive us away from God, but (as the shirt says) “If the pain doesn’t kill you, it will only make  you stronger.” Maybe dark nights are when God is at work on us the most! Maybe dark nights of the soul are actually brilliant days of refining fire! I imagine that when we look back at our life, we will see that it was in the “dark nights” that God was most at work in our lives.

Which means that the doubts and fears we have in such times may actually be from God. Maybe, the best think you can do in a dark night is question some of the things you thought you knew from the “warm and fuzzy days of light.” Maybe it’s the truths we learn in the thunderous dark that God really wants to teach us, but we long for the emotions and feelings of a day at the beach.

Let me give you a personal example from my own life. In the light of the day, I was a pastor. I loved being a pastor. Every day, when I went to work, I couldn’t believe that I got paid to do what I was doing. And I think I was a fairly decent pastor. Not the best, but decent. They were giddy times for me. My family suffered, but I personally enjoyed it. Looking back, I think it was the time I felt the closest to God.

The last three years of my life have been a dark night. Storms and distress. Fear and failure. Depression. Anguish. Anger. During this time, I became quite disillusioned with the “religion” of Christianity. I saw it as empty and shallow. My view of God changed. My view of “ministry” changed. Several elements of my theology changed. During this time, people kept saying, “Don’t doubt in the dark what God revealed in the day. Stay the course. Things will get better.”

But I didn’t go back.

And now, I am somewhere in the dusk (or dawn?) between the night and day. And I’m trying to decide where the true light was. Was it when I was a pastor? Or was that just “ignorance is bliss” and now I know the real truth, revealed by God in the darkness and the stormy sea? Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t go back to the way I was, or the way I thought, for anything. It was a painful route to get here, but I would do it all over again if it was the only way to learn what I have learned.

So maybe the darkness is light after all.

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