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READ THIS before you go to (or graduate from) College.

Beating the College Debt TrapLast week I got to give a heavy skim to the new book by Alex Chediak called Beating the College Debt Trap.

It looks like an excellent guide to one of the problems facing American young people–the dangerous blend of “necessary” College with skyrocketing  costs associated with getting your degree. This week I’m going to post a couple excerpts from the book. Today I just wanted to give a general “thumbs up” and recommend that anyone who is a high school junior or senior, and anyone still with some time left in their college years, give the book a read.

To give you an idea of the topics covered, here’s the table of contents.

Contents
Checklist for Getting a Degree without Going Broke
Preface: Why This Book?
Introduction: Take Ownership of Your Financial Future

Part 1
Examining Assumptions
Trap 1: Everyone Must Go to a Four-Year College
Be true to how you’re wired
Trap 2: It’s All just Going to Work Out
Understand why college is expensive, and take 
responsibility for how you pay for it

Part 2
Making Smart Decisions
Knowing Your Options
Trap 3: Spend a Fortune on Prestige (and Other Bad Ideas)
Let  your head lead your heart
Trap 4: Choose Your Major on a Whim
Know what you’re getting into
Trap 5: Student Loans Are Always Worth It
Develop awareness and exercise foresight

Part 3
Taking Charge
Earning and Managing Your Money
Trap 6: I Can’t Get Meaningful Work as a Student
Be creative and resourceful – you’ll set yourself
up for long-term success
Trap 7: I Can’t Control My Expense
If you don’t, who will?

Part 4
Keeping It Going
Succeeding after College
Trap 8: Finding a High-Paying Job Will Be a Breeze
Set yourself up for professional and financial success
Trap 9: I’ve Got a Paycheck and Can Finally Live it Up!
Live within your means while pursuing financial
independence
Conclusion: Be Free from Student Debt So You Can Live
with Impact

Also, here’s a video trailer for the book…

 

Satan Hates Humans.

On Monday (yes, back on Monday) we took the evening to look at the topic of Satan’s animosity towards the human race. Here are the notes:

Who is Satan?
A spiritual/angelic being created by God who now opposes God. He seems to be the main opponent and leader of the spiritual opposition to God’s plan. He is not typically seen by humans, and works primarily through spreading lies throughout the human race. Verses:

What is Satan all about?
Fighting God. But since he can’t he strikes at the image of God—Humans. In other words, he works against humans out of animosity towards God.

How the Bible Tells us to think about Satan

What Paul Told the church in Corinth:

  • Don’t be ignorant of how Satan works, that is, his thoughts, intents, schemes. (2 Cor 2:11)
  • If you are ignorant, you could be deceived—Satan is deceiving, corrupting, ruining. (2 Cor 11:3)

How we see Satan’s animosity towards the human race:

  1. The basic info: Deceiving, Accusing, Causing War. Rev 12:7-10
  2. He wants us to die! Genesis 2:16-17, Genesis 3:4-5 Satan works to create mistrust and hostility between God and Humanity. He wants the hostility between God and Man to kill humans.
  3. He accuses and defames us. Job 1:1, 8-11. Even when we’re at our best, Satan tries to make God our enemy and bring separation between us. Then, when we’re at our worst, he highlights the truth so it will destroy us.
  4. He Tempts Us. Matthew 4:1-10. He tries to use good things in Creation, and our own human nature, to get us to use creation and ourselves in evil ways. He wants us to twist things to bring evil out of the good things God has made. He wants everything to be ruined, and he wants us to be the ones who ruin things.

    So here’s a little paradigm —
    God: Creating everything good, then bringing good even out of the evil that happens.
    Satan: Creating nothing, and trying to bring evil out of every good thing.

  5. He Likes to See Humans Degraded.
    1. Mark 5:1-5 (Dangerous, Bound, Lonely, Self-Destructive)
    2. Luke 13:11,16 (Bound)
    3. Luke 22:3 (Totally used)
  6. He lies to us. John 8:42-44. He uses God’s good gift of speech to spread misinformation—in a way totally calculated to make humans think and live in ways that are harmful and destructive to their relationship with God, their relationships with each other, their souls, and their bodies.
  7. His goal is to Steal, Kill, and Destroy. John 10:10. He wants to take what’s rightfully ours, to trample on our life, and to ruin what’s valuable. And he lies—to make himself seem like the giver of real life, and to get us to see God as the one who takes away our chance at abundant life.
  8. He ultimately wants to devour us. 1 Peter 5:8. He wants to annihilate us from the world individually, and “assimilate the church back into the world.”

Challenge:

  1. All we have to do to see the truth of all this is look at the world around us. Why is so much energy expended on hurting, oppressing, and killing human beings? Why do our entertainment factories churn out endless hours of images of humans crying, deformed, injured, degraded and killed? It’s because there’s a malevolent spiritual personality who assists us and drives us forward in our worst traits. He loves to see humans broken. And if we say that all this happens for no reason at all (like, it’s just evolution) then we have a worse, weirder problem—namely, what are we all getting so upset about? The fact that we can’t make it mean nothing to us shows that something bigger is going on than two animals fighting.
  2. Always remember, the whole game is that there is someone who hates you trying to trick you. The deceit comes precisely to keep you from remembering this. Temptations always present themselves to you as friendly offers, but there is nothing but hostility to you from Satan.
  3. Look back at John 10:9-11, 14-16. The whole choice is right here. There is a good shepherd, who wants one thing for his sheep—abundant life. That is, life fully provided for and fully able to be lived. Everything in Satan’s power is working to keep you from that shepherd—so you can be ripped off.
  4. Christians, we should learn to hate what Satan does and all its effects. It should drive us to resist temptation, because we see it as an attempt to rip us off and degrade us, and ultimately to dishonor our good God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t cooperate with him!

How to look at things you can’t see.

Last night we took a detailed look at 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:11. Here are the notes:

Paul’s concern in this passage is that we don’t lose heart. (4:16) How did Paul and his companions who traveled with him to share the message of Jesus keep from losing heart, even when they faced adversity.

Why?
1. He had in inward source of power that was always refreshed (4:16)
2. Even Paul’s suffering was working glory for him. (4:17)
3. Paul presently did something: he looked at the things which were unseen. (4:18)
4. The present things are only temporary, and coming glory is eternal (4:19)

How can we help ourselves not “lose heart” in life?

First, one thing must be true: We actually have the life of God working in our hearts. (4:16)

Second, there are some things we need to know.

  1. Our suffering is temporary (17)
  2. Our suffering is glory for us (17)
  3. What we see now will pass away, but what we don’t yet see will come and endure forever (19)

Third, in order to receive and experience this renewing of life that keeps us from losing heart even when we face difficulty, we learn to do what Paul calls “looking” at the things which are unseen.

Now, What are these “unseen” things? The things that aren’t currently seen. The things that are going to never pass away. (18) The things that have to do with “glory” instead of “suffering.” (17)

The Bible’s teaching is that all of these things have to do with the time when Jesus returns and establishes his kingdom on earth. That kingdom will never end, and will be inhabited by those who’ve trusted Christ in their lives before Christ comes, and therefore are resurrected to live forever with him.

So “unseen” doesn’t just mean “invisible” or “unable to be seen,” it means “not seen right now.” It’s not “imaginary,” but more like, “just wait.”

How do you actually do this? How can you “fix your eyes” on things which are unseen? That’s what Paul demonstrates for us in 5:1-11.

Here he demonstrates how a Christian would “look at the unseen things” when they were facing a crisis as big as a threat to their very life. If your life is threatened, how can you not lose heart? You can look at the unseen things. And what does that look like? Observe Paul’s workshop:

5:1
First, Paul says “we know” something. (This is like what he said in 4:16-18, but let’s watch how he works it out here.) He says, “we know that if our body is destroyed, we have a better one waiting for us.” So Paul reminds himself about the better thing that can’t be touched by whatever crisis or threat is currently facing him.

5:2-5
Paul says, even now, we feel this tension inside. He identifies a source of “spiritual stress” as the desire to experience something greater and MORE “lively” than the current life. This tension, when rightly identified, proves the very reality of verse 1, that we have a more permanent body prepared for us.

5:5
We presently have the Spirit as a guarantee. (This is the explanation for what he said in 4:16)

5:6-8
We remember that we’re going to be with him. That future experience of totally close friendship and interaction with Jesus drives us forward. It makes the now worth it.

5:9-11
Since we’re going to see him, and part of it is going to be the experience of standing before his judgment seat, it drives us to want to pleased him.

So to sum up the process, Paul seems to be saying that the way we “look” at unseen things is by:

  1. Learning, and knowing, what the bible says about the situation (i.e. “if my body dies, I have another one”) and then by remembering it at the crucial time. So we practice calling to mind the truth that we most need in every situation. (ex. Heb 10:34)
  2. If we get tempted to doubt that knowledge, we remember that we are already experiencing the beginning of this because the Holy Spirit is already letting us taste this coming life, which has made us dissatisfied with the current life.
  3. Then we call to mind that the coming life isn’t only going to be life forever in a new, better body, but it’s going to be life with Christ as its defining characteristic.
  4. This moves us to think about talking to him face to face in order to give account for our life.
  5. This moves us to want to please him.

…So as we face any crisis that threatens to ruin or steal or destroy some part of our life here, we “look at the things which are unseen.” We Think: This may be taken from me, but I have something better coming, and that’s why I already long for it in my heart. Jesus himself will be there with me, and I’ll give account for how I handled this. – How can I please him in this situation?

So in 4:18, “looking” means keeping our attention on what the Bible says about the future that’s promised to us and all its implications, and then using that to interpret what’s going on now.

What are the outcomes of this “looking”?

  1. Greater emotional health. We don’t lose heart.
  2. Greater ability to be spiritually active and fruitful—because we don’t lose heart.
  3. We actually live lives that please the Lord.
  4. We reap glory.
  5. The Holy Spirit is able to strengthen us day by day, renewing us inwardly.

If you don’t follow Jesus currently, may we ask you–Do you live your life on only one level (the material)? Do you sense dissatisfaction with the level of this life? (5:4) It’s because you were not made to simply live on a physical, temporary level. You were made to live on the level of the intersection between physical and spiritual, forever. God sent Jesus to show us the way to find that life, and when he was raised from the dead, he proved that anyone who trusted him could have that life.

Why can’t we stop telling people they’re sinners?

Last night we discussed the fact that, even though many people around us may think it’s a negative, unhelpful thing for Christians to talk about sin, it’s actually one of the most loving things we can do. Here are the notes:

The verse that kicked off these thoughts was 1 Timothy 1:15.

In addition to that, the comment I heard once that’s been rolling around in my head. “If your message is that we’re sinners you need to stop. You’re hurting people and you need to stop.”

So how do Christian reply to this?

Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15 that one of the ways describe Jesus’ mission is to say he came “to save sinners.” That’s why he was here! Not to hurt people, but to save them! Not to harm sinners, but to save them! There’s lots in the bible that tells us that this is a central, non-negotiable part of the Christian message.

What the scriptures tell us about this:

Matthew 1:21
Jesus will save his people from their sins.
Sin is dangerous. Jesus came to rescue us out of that danger. It turns out that sin is eternally, mortally dangerous. So Jesus provides us eternal, life giving rescue. This is announced right at the beginning of his life—it’s the meaning of his name!

Luke 5:31-32
Jesus didn’t come to call righteous, but sinners to repentance. Jesus sees that we’re sick. He came to help people change their mind about their lives of sin, and opt out, experiencing a total life-change and a new start. The people who are currently sick, in need of a mind change and a new start are the people he’s after.

Luke 19:10
Jesus came to seek and save the lost
. To be a sinner is to be lost. Jesus calls you back to knowing and being where you’re supposed to be. He says this is why he came!

Luke 24:47
His whole life was so repentance and forgiveness can be proclaimed. Sin creates guilt. There’s real guilt and penalties which people are liable for, and Jesus came to proclaim the possibility of finding forgiveness. Jesus wants guilty people to get forgiven—and he wants his followers to tell everyone that.

John 1:29
Jesus was here to take away the sin of the world.
Sin is something all of us are stuck with. We can’t escape. Jesus takes it away so that the world can be preserved. See also John 3:17-18 and 12:47.

1 John 4:9-10
..and this is how we see God’s love.
Satisfying the penalty we faced because of our sin [that’s what “propitiation” means] is exactly how God shows us he loves us. If we try to eliminate the idea of sin, we miss out on God’s love.

But what if someone says, “OK, but I don’t think you should call me or my group sinners. I agree that there are people out there who need this message, but I disagree that it’s me, or I disagree that it’s for the reason you say”—? There’s two reasons that doesn’t fly from a Christian standpoint:

  1. There are no “special reasons” that anyone is called a sinner. We all have some common sins we share, and we all have a few particulars that we have in common with certain groups of people. So even if someone has an issue with a particular sin being pointed out, it doesn’t get you off the hook for the call of Christ, and the designation as a “sinner.” That one belongs to everybody.
  2. Christians don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing what we tell people about sin—all we can do is look into the bible and then report what it says. If someone wants to say, “sure, if I was a racist, that would be a sin, but not these other things in my life.” We say, “How would you know what sin is and what it’s not? Jesus is calling you to let him tell you what things he’s seeking to rescue people from, what things count as sickness, and what things make you guilty and liable for God’s judgment.”

What does Jesus say to those who disagree?
These scriptures give us some insight to how he’d respond when someone says they’re not a sinner and don’t need his forgiveness.

John 8:32-36
[Jesus said] “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

John 9:39-41
And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

Matthew 9:10-13
Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

…Now back to 1 Timothy 1:15. Notice Paul says that this is  “faithful”  to the true, original gospel message as taught by Jesus and expounded by Paul and the other apostles. In other words, this saying “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” is legit, authentic Christianity. Secondly, Paul says the saying is “worthy of all acceptance.” That means it should meet with [as one writer said] “a full personal appropriation and application to yourself–the most complete and wholehearted acceptance.” And, again, what is this faithful saying everyone should accept? That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!

And just to underline the point, Paul gives himself as a personal example to illustrate how true this is. “We should totally embrace the doctrine that Christ Jesus came to save sinners—and I want to just say that I myself am the perfect example of this. I was the worst!” While every Christian doesn’t have the back story that Paul had, every Christian feels what he’s expressing here–that I myself am included in the truth about Jesus coming to save sinners. I know it’s true, cause he saved me, and I was horrible! I needed to be rescued!

The point?

Here’s a way to sum up what Christians have to say to the world around us who hasn’t heard, or who disagrees with us:

“God has a message for you—and it’s the message of Jesus: we are all sinners—that is, we’ve done actual things with our bodies and said actual things with our mouths and held actual thoughts in our minds which are dishonoring to God and to what it means to be human. These things make you guilty and that means everyone stands condemned by God’s justice. But God loves you and has provided a way for you escape the consequences of your sin. Jesus died for you because you are a sinner, because you’ve made yourself unworthy of God, and because you have no other hope if he doesn’t provide a way out for you. And that’s exactly what he wants for you. His love is coming to you as a free offer—now because of Jesus you can turn from your sin, experience a whole new start, and escape the guilt you’ve already built up in your life. Believe this message and claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior.”

Christians:

  • Let’s be clear in our own minds about why we can’t ever give up this part of our message.
  • Let’s embrace it for ourselves—in our own way, we can get excited about this part of the message of Jesus because it means that we ourselves can be saved! If Jesus didn’t come to save sinners, he didn’t come to save us!
  • Let’s remember it’s a loving thing, a positive thing to say, because we’re not just criticizing people—we’re saying, “I know how you can find forgiveness!

True faith is deciding Jesus can do it.

In Mark 9 the Holy Spirit gives us the record of what happened when a man brought Jesus a difficult and (humanly) hopeless situation–his son was possessed by a demon who was bent on destroying the boy. Jesus asked him how long it had been this way for the family. The dad said it had been this way for years–since his son was a little boy:

 “And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” (Mark 9:22)

Jesus’ answer to the father is at once filled with hope, and (as we can all relate to) kind of despair inducing. Why? Because while Jesus indicates that this is no problem in terms of his own power, he seems to put some of the onus back on the father as well, or at least, that’s how it may have seemed when he heard this answer:

“If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:23)

If you’ve read this story before, you probably love the father’s reply, because, well, most of us can totally relate to it.

“Lord, I believe;” [He cried out] “Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

In James Edwards’ commentary on the book of Mark, he gives us these helpful thoughts about this passage:

True faith is always aware how small and inadequate it is.

The father becomes a believer not when he amasses a sufficient quantum of faith but when he risks everything on what little faith he has, when he yields his insufficiency to the sufficiency of Jesus, “‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!'”

The risk of faith is more costly to the father than bringing his son to Jesus, for he can talk about his son but he must “cry out” for faith. True faith takes no confidence in itself nor does it judge Jesus by the weakness of his followers. It looks to the More Powerful One who stands in the place of God, whose authoritative word restores life from chaos.

True faith is unconditional openness to God, a decision in the face of all to the contrary that Jesus is able.

(The Gospel According to Mark, James Edwards, p. 280)

God’s glory is good news.

It was a great time here with everyone last night thinking about the Lord’s coming and worshiping him for his love. Here are the study notes:

The Good News of the Glory of God

Two things I ran into in the last month or so combined to point me to what i thought we should look at together during this Christmas season.

First: I recently read this quote in an article, from a book called Living with a Wild God, by an atheist in her 70s named Barbara Ehrenreich. She uses this book to recount some experiences she had while she was a teenager, experiences which were of a decidedly spiritual nature. She remains an atheist, but felt the need to publicly talk about these experiences. They happened when she was a teenager, and this is the most vivid of them I read:

At some point in my predawn walk—not at the top of a hill or at the exact moment of sunrise, but in its own good time—the world flamed into life. How else to describe it? There were no visions, no prophetic voices or visits by totemic animals, just this blazing everywhere. Something poured into me and I poured out into it. This was not the passive…merger with “the All,” as promised by the Eastern mystics. It was a furious encounter with a living substance that was coming at me through all things at once, and one reason for the terrible wordlessness of the experience is that you cannot observe fire really closely without becoming part of it. Whether you start as a twig or a gorgeous tapestry, you will be recruited into the flame…

Of course, like I said, Barabara Ehrenreich is a semi-famous atheist who is not about to say that this experience has anything to do with God, especially not the God of Christmas. I don’t know what she experienced that day on the hill. But there’s no reason it couldn’t have been the God I myself met, in a slightly less visual but no less tangible encounter. I know of many friends who would report very similar experiences—and all of them have since let God fully and personally introduce himself to them as someone even greater than a living fire. It just strikes me that a universe where such a being exists is immediately, infinitely better than the cold, empty and thin universe of the atheists. But thinking it’s better doesn’t make it true. That’s why we look to the pages of the bible, which is chock-full of reports from people with similar experiences. My experiences, the recorded experiences of hundreds and even thousands in the bible, and the experiences of many of my friends all testify to something which sounds incredible in our day: We are not alone in the universe. We are being addressed by someone huge and consuming.

Second: A few weeks ago Pastor Joe read this verse on a Sunday morning here at church.

1 Timothy 1:11
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

Now that’s only a half-sentence, but he made a comment about the grammar of the verse which sent my mind down a rabbit trail. He pointed out that the verse is just as easily translated:

“…the gospel [or, the good news] of the glory of God.”

Paul says his message was about the good news about God’s Glory.

Tonight I want to talk about this “glory” and why it is such good news, and how Christmas is all about this message of glory. So first, let’s define glory. What do we mean when we say “glory”?

I was recently speaking to a class of first graders, trying to come up with ways to describe the concept of glory to them. Here’s what I landed on:

  • Something so big it makes you dizzy
  • Someone so important it makes you shy
  • Something so bright it’s hard to look at

If I was speaking to adults, I think I’d add these two as well:

  • An experience so personal it’s unnerving.
  • Someone so present it’s sobering.

As I mentioned, many times in scripture we see people having experiences like, and even greater than, the one Barbara Ehrenreich describes. For instance, here’s what happened with Moses and more than a million people in the desert of the Sinai peninsula:

In the morning…there was thundering and lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.

And then a few chapters later they recount this as well:

Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. Now the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

(Exodus 19:16-19 and 24:15-18)

And just to add one more, the prophet Ezekiel reported this experience, which happened to him while he was sitting by a river bank after he had been taken into exile (this is recounted in Ezekiel chapter 1). He said:

There by the river, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. I looked, and a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a huge cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. And out from the inside of it came four things that looked like living creatures. They kind of looked like people, but each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. The soles of their feet were like the cows hooves. They were like the color of polished bronze. Human hands were under their wings They didn’t turn when they went, but they all went straight forward. They each had four different faces–the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle. And they looked like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning. And they were running back and forth looking like a flash of lightning. But that’s not all. Next to each one was a wheel on the earth, or something that looked like a wheel within a wheel. And their rims were so high they were awesome; and their rims were full of eyes. When the living creatures moved, the wheels went beside them, and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. And stretched out over their heads was a surface like an awesome crystal. When they moved, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a roar like the noise of an army; and a voice came from above the surface that was over their heads, where I saw something like a throne. It looked like a sapphire stone; and sitting on the throne was someone who looked like a man. And from what looked like his waist and upward I saw, what looked like the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from there downward I saw, what looked like fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.

So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking…

Then, in the gospel of John, we have this crazy twist in the story. John says that a divine person named “the word,” who turns out to be Jesus himself, “became flesh and lived among us, and we beheld his glory.” 

Which brings us back to 1 Timothy 1:11. Paul says that Christians preach the good news of the glory of the blessed God. God’s Glory is Good news. Or you could say, it is good news that God is glorious. Or, it is good news that there is such a God, and that when you encounter him, you encounter something which can only be described as Glory. The fact that God is supremely glorious is good news, in fact, it’s the best news you could ever here. And the fact that Paul says encountering God’s glory is encountering the presence of the most blessed being in existence makes it even better.

Why? Because it means the universe is made, directed, and cared for by a being who is supremely glorious. Just imagine the opposite—a universe created, directed, and cared for by no one. Or, by someone who is corny, small, petty, insignificant and not-compelling. Or by someone who is powerful but dark, selfish, emotionally turned inward, and small of character. No, the universe in inhabited, every square inch, by Someone who is awe-inspiringly glorious.

Now, that could be bad news for creatures like us, because we are non-glorious. Compared to God, we humans are small and petty, dirty and stingy, and non-compelling and weightless in our character. So if it is true that the universe is inhabited by this supremely glorious one, what if he just despises our smallness? What if he sees our failings and detests them? What if he just wants us to go away? What if he doesn’t have time for the non-important? What if he’s too bright to care about the lightless?

This is what Christmas is all about. On the first Christmas, God showed us that his glory is not simply hugeness, brightness, power or importance. The Apostle John wrote in his account of Jesus’ life that God’s glory was most clearly shown when he did something that shocked everyone. He showed that his glory was also, maybe even primarily, the glory of his character. This is what Jesus was—the ultimate display of love, mercy, bigness of heart, generosity, humility. God took on human flesh, and came and lived among us. He was a real human for more than three decades, this is how he displayed his glory in our world, in our history, in a way we could look right in the face.

The glory of God is a huge, living sun you may encounter in some experience like Barbara Ehrenreich had, but it is the glory of someone with such a glorious heart, that he decided that to walk around in a human body was not beneath him. And what did we see when he came to be born and live this way? That he would serve us, and die for us, and in fact—would do the ultimate act of “manning up” and take responsibility for something that wasn’t his responsibility—He took our sin on himself when he didn’t have to; He died when he was the deathless one; and He did it all on our behalf, in our place, in our stead—this is the glory we beheld. The infinite, eternal sun of burning glory looked out of human eyes and showed us the love in his heart with concrete, human actions. As one writer said: “Flesh is clearly not the means by which the glory of God is concealed in the man Jesus, but the means by which it is revealed before the eyes of all. The flesh is the medium of the glory and makes it visible to all people. By means of the incarnation God has visibly appeared among humankind” (H. Ridderbos, The Gospel of John).

When he did this, he interpreted the whole world, all of human history, every tear and cry of pain, every hope that won’t die in our hearts, every swell of love we feel for another person—all of it, he tells us what it truly means. He lived and died to show us how critical it is for us to understand evil and the human sin that unleashes evil into our world every day. He showed us how much we need to see our own sin as the most pressing issue we each need to deal with. And he showed us how huge God’s heart is that he would make a way for us to simply turn away from what we could never run away from, or pay back ourselves.

So the Glory of God would be good news in and of itself—like anything big and beautiful always is—it always makes the world a better place just by existing. As the biggest, and most beautiful, it would already be the best news. But it’s even better news for humans than that, because the Glory of God doesn’t simply crush us and sweep us aside—first it invites us in. The Bible tells us over and over again that God created us so we could see, revel in, and actually share God’s glory. We are the one part of the universe who God wants to share himself with. He promises us that we’ll be glorified ourselves, and that we will exist in blessedness forever. The only thing that can keep us out of that future is if we cling to small, dirty things that keep us from the God’s glory. God’s glory shows us that all of our sin and guilt is horrible and dark, but the good news is that God’s glory took on human flesh so he could free us from all that dirt and offer us forgiveness for all our guilt.

So Christmas is all about that moment in time—there was God’s glory—born as a little baby, crying in the dark. Our thinking was so upside down that we would have missed it, unless he spent his whole life showing us who He was. And he did. And those first followers said: “We saw his glory. And this is the best possible news.”

There is a God. He is the most blessed being in existence. He shines with a weighty glory beyond comprehension—and he loves to stoop down to human people, and gather us up into his glory. That’s the meaning of life. That’s the point of the universe. That’s the true nature of reality. If you miss this, you miss everything. If you ignore this, you misinterpret everything.

If tonight, as you sit here, you’ve never turned to God and turned away from your sin—let this be the moment. Believe the good news of the Glory of God—that the world was made by someone too glorious to imagine and that right now his presence fills the universe. And believe the good news of the glory of God that came to us in Jesus Christ. Embrace his message, his teachings, and this new possibility of becoming friends with the glorious God.

Now, for those of you who, this is all pretty familiar, but not…compelling–If you know these things, but they don’t move you at all, can I ask why? Do you believe this God is here with us now? Or at your work? Or at school? Or at your apartment? If so, can I ask you why that reality wouldn’t be the most engaging truth you know? There’s one potentially disturbing passage in the bible that explains why this could happen to someone (it’s 2 Corinthians 4:3-6). The Apostle Paul writes:

If our message is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, which keeps the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, from shining on them. For we’re not preaching ourselves, we preach Christ Jesus the Lord. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In other words, if I hear about Jesus, or if I’ve learned about him in the past, and it seems not very interesting to me, not the kind of thing I could put all my life into, then it’s only for one reason—when the current spiritual ruler of this world is blinding the eyes of people who don’t believe Jesus so they don’t see how he displays the most desirable thing in the world—God’s glory. This enemy of God doesn’t want people to see Jesus for who he truly is, so what he does is throw up a whole world of distractions. Whole cultures built on creating distractions from the glory of God, including imposter God’s with counterfeit glory. Counterfeit heavens. Imposter messages which promise people things they long for. A big world carnival of distraction. And the rich of the world are in the most danger cause if they work hard enough they can go get that stuff.

So if when I think about Jesus he seems like a duty, or a chore, or something a few clicks below a football game or a night out with friends or a good movie or maybe he just can’t compete with bigger things like a certain lifestyle I want to achieve…he’s just not something that could capture my heart and thoughts and talents…If that’s what I see when I think about Jesus—then I’m among the group of people who’s eyes are still blinded by the world’s current spiritual prince because we don’t believe. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve heard the message. What matters is—does Jesus excite you because you see God’s glory in this humble, courageous man and his death on your behalf? Are you excited about seeing him when he comes back in full glory to bring all the glory to the earth in a visible, undeniable way?

If not—please don’t leave tonight without crying out to God to remove your blindness.

And Christians—let’s always let the end of December remind us of the awesome truth of the personal, present, glorious God, and our glorious, blessed future with him forever.

When he was born he was called “Immanuel—God with us.”
Before he left he told us, “I am with you always.”
When he returns the word is, “God will be with them.”

Which is why on his last night of earthly life, before he went to his execution, he prayed, Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24)

And this is forever.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

If we think it’s wrong, we are wrong.

How are we supposed to think about the Bible when there’s something that seems confusing? Or what if someone reads something in the Bible and thinks —That just can’t be right? One Christian leader from many centuries ago, Augustine of Hippo, gave a nice encapsulation of how Christians have approached these situations for 2000 years:

When we do understand it, we are right.

But when we are wrong because we haven’t understood it, we leave it in the right.

When we have gone wrong, we don’t make out scripture to be wrong, but it continues to stand up straight and right, so that we may return to it for correction.

(Augustine, Sermon 23.3).

So this idea that the Bible is always right isn’t something Christians made up recently. It’s what Christians had already agreed on–all the way back in the 300s. These are good things to remember, for all of life.

Oh, and here’s one more cool old quote:

“The soul watered by sacred Scripture grows hearty and bears fruit in due season. This is the orthodox faith.”   (John of Damascus)

What is Christianity?

On Monday night we took the evening to consider a basic question: What is Christianity? Now, there are two different perspectives you might take to answer the question…

  1. Answered from one perspective: Christianity is what results from God calling out a people for himself from every nation to be the bride of his Son living on the new earth forever.
  2. Answered from another perspective: Christianity is people born of the Spirit, passing along the Apostolic testimony, living lives which match the message, until Jesus returns.

The second perspective helps people who don’t follow Christ understand what they are looking at when they see Christianity, and it helps people who are Christians understand what they’re supposed to be doing now that they are followers of Christ. That’s the perspective we considered on Monday night. Below are the notes:

People born of the Spirit

Mark 1:15 – Jesus preached this message of the kingdom of God.

John 3:1-8 – Jesus said that you can’t enter or see the kingdom of God unless you’re born of the spirit. How does this happen? Faith! (3:9-21) As one commentator explained: “Wind is observable, but it goes sovereignly where it pleases and is untraceable in its origin and disappearance. Also free, mighty, and untraceable in his movements is the Spirit in a person who is born of the Spirit.” (H. Ridderbos, The Gospel of John, p. 129) – Here is the rest of what he said about this passage, paraphrased: The point of Jesus’ teaching is to contrast divine possibilities with human possibilities—and not just to show us that we’re weak, but to invite us to look away from our own possibilities or impossibilities and to look to God for our salvation. Because the freedom of the Spirit to go where he pleases is not just impulsiveness or unpredictability, it’s a power that nothing can hold back; and the Spirit’s untraceability is not just that no one can figure him out, it’s that he possesses means that that humans don’t have—but what is impossible with Humans is possible with God. Only God designed and opened up this way for us to have his life, and this is the way we become participants in this new existence and therefore gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus also calls “eternal life.” And so it makes sense that it is faith in this salvation that is being revealed in Jesus that allows us to participate in these things. (See also 1 Peter 1:23-25, 1 John 5:1, Galatians 3:13-14, 4:6, Romans 8:9)

To sum this point up: Christianity is irreducibly spiritual. The thing that sets Christians apart—the main “identity marker” we have—is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which has led to our experience of a whole new birth. This can look like a total life change, or a whole new set of desires and interests, or a new freedom from the old things that used to break us down. Primarily it will manifest itself in a new love for and excitement about God and a love for and concern about other people. That’s what makes Christians Christians, and this is what everything else flows from.

Passing along the Apostolic Testimony

So if this is what Christians are, then what distinctive things do Christians do? This is important for Christians to communicate to those who aren’t Christians, and it is important for Christians to reflect on so they don’t get confused about what they’re supposed to be doing.

Here’s the key: Christians are people who have heard and believed a message, and now they simply repeat and pass along that same message. What message is this? It is the message taught by Jesus to his hand-picked messengers called Apostles. See Jesus’ explanation in Luke 24:44-47. (See also Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Acts 1:8, John 20:30-31, 2 Timothy 1:13 & 2:1-2, 2 Peter 1:12-16.)

The Point: Ultimately Christians are not people who innovate. We are people who get very serious about knowing what the message handed down to us is, and repeating it faithfully. We find that message in the bible, and that’s what we say to everyone. (Romans 1:16)

Living lives which match the message

See 2 Timothy 3:10-15 – Paul’s life matched the message.

Four areas where our lives match our message:

  1. Love – Since Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the supreme demonstration of God’s love, and since his message is a message of love for humanity, Christians are transformed by love, and we seek to demonstrate it to everyone.
  2. Holiness – Since Jesus has atoned for all sin, and will eradicate it from the earth, why would a Christian keep it around in their life? So a Christian seeks to live a life totally pleasing to God in holiness.
  3. Gathering – Since Jesus has overcome the things that fracture human society, and is gathering a world-wide family for himself, we get together often and regularly to express our new one-ness in Christ.
  4. Spreading – Since Jesus has transcended all ethnic and national barriers, Christians scatter throughout the world using their daily lives and special missions to spread the message of Christ to every corner of the globe and every part of society.

 Until Jesus Returns

There’s a time element built in to the Christian experience. See Titus 2:11-14. This all lasts until Jesus returns to institute the Kingdom of God on the earth. So Christians do what they do, and say what they say with eagerness about the approaching return of Jesus. They’re life looks like a life of waiting.

Summing it all up:

Christians are meant to be people who live with a lot of direction in their lives, and a clear sense of purpose. We don’t need to guess at who we are or what we’re doing. The details of our lives are all designed to fit into the direction God has given us. It begins with the Spirit, it’s shaped by the message, it aims at spreading, it longs for Jesus to return. Anything that doesn’t fit into that kind of life doesn’t belong. We’re people who constantly repent and look to grow and cleanse our lives of things that don’t make sense based on what we’re learning about Jesus and what he’s done in our lives. And we do it all with a huge, unique kind of Joy, since Jesus has secured everything that truly matters for us for all eternity, and we will soon see him and be with him, together, forever.

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