Somebody Recognizes

Every time I drive into College Station from Corpus Christi on good ol' Highway 77, I pass through Cuero, TX. Not much of a town, but nonetheless it's there. And every time I pass through it I see this sign; however, this time Bethan was with me with her digital camera and we snapped this picture as we drove by. I dig it.

Jesus: Stone of Stumbling

"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel." - John 5:19-20

The Gospel of John is great for separating those who follow Jesus as a moral guide from those who worship Him as God. I've been realizing this more and more as I comb through the words written by the apostle. As he writes he very purposefully shows that Jesus is God and claimed to be so himself. At first glance these verses may seem contradictory to that purpose, especially with Jesus saying he "can do nothing of his own accord." What kind of God can do nothing of his own accord? But instead of revealing an impotent savior, these verses give a peak into a uniquely trinitarian God. The Son submits and is perfectly obedient to the will of the Father. In fact, rather than claiming that Jesus is putting a limit on his power, I'd say he rather exalts himself here by claiming perfect obedience. He very blatantly says that he only does what the Father does and that the Father shows him everything that he is doing. What place does impotence have in the life of a being who can perfectly obey and mimick everything that a completely holy God is doing? Answer: It has no place at all. Jesus is laying claim here to his own deity!
And perhaps the most audacious-sounding part of these two verses is the very last half-sentence: "So that you may marvel." Not only does Jesus claim to be God, but he says that the Father will show the Son greater works SPECIFICALLY for the purpose of people marvelling at him! What great moral teacher says things like this? I can almost hear the Pharisees' blood boiling over as they hear this. The very Stone they stumbled over is now saying to them, "I was placed in your path so that you may marvel." With what anger the Pharisees must have wanted to say, "Marvel at you? You're a mere carpenter! Leave my sight!" But those who have built their lives upon this stumbling block now become cornerstone, desire not to have him leave their sight, but desire to marvel at him; taking in all of his woundrous aspects and describing him instead as most beautiful.

Another Book, The Same Savior

It's been a good while. Life has been redonk (short for redonkulous...a spin off of ridiculous) considering the amount of work my gracious teachers have bestowed upon me to do. For example: "Let's see...today is Tuesday...by Thursday you all need to read chapter 7 to the end of the book (approx. 200 pgs.) and write a paper synthesizing the material." But enough of sinful complaining, Jesus is still King. And...I just finished "Becoming Conversant With the Emerging Church" by D.A. Carson. Carson did a phenomenal job, I thought, in producing cohesive thought on a topic that is not too easy to be cohesive about if you get caught up in the philosophical aspects of it (see what Col. 2:8 says on that). His conclusions: "The truth is that Jesus Christ is Lord of all - of the truth and of our experience. The Bible insists that we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5)." You need to read the book to figure out why that is such great line for the end of it, however, I feel that my brothers and sisters in the Lord can rejoice in that conclusion anyways...because that's some good stuff. Get the book and read it.
In other news, we need Jesus. I was reading Matthew 26:36-39 the other night and part of it stuck out to me: "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." And when I read this, two things always stick out: 1) Jesus' sorrow 2) the cup that had been poured for Jesus to drink. I always find it so mind blowing that we see Jesus sweating drops of blood due to his anguish in this scene, yet Hebrews tells us that he did it "for the joy set before him." The Lord's ways are definitely higher than our ways if in the midst of such sorrow he can still operate out of the joy set before him. At the same time, the cup poured for Jesus drove him to such depths of sorrow and yet it was his joy because it was his Father's will. And that cup was filled to the brim with the wrath of God and the sin of mankind. We must worship our Father who set that cup in front of His own Son and asked him to drink it. And he drank it. And now we can know Him.

Here I Stand

Today I finished Here I Stand by Roland H. Bainton, a life of Martin Luther. It is an outstanding book. I am biased because I love biographies, and even more biased because Luther was a reformer. However, the Lord mightily used this book to teach me many things about spiritual warfare, standing upon the foundation of Christ, and never folding when it comes to obeying what the Bible says. The man was a servant of the Word of God. I also came to find out that most people (including myself before this book) know very little about his contributions after defecting from the Catholic church. His accomplishments demand that we look to Jesus and give him praise for supplying Luther with strength. Jesus spoke life to us when he said, "Apart from me you can do nothing." Anyone who is looking for a great read about a man who was just like us in his struggles and temptations, I commend this book to you. God is gracious and good to use ordinary men to bring about his sovereign purposes.

The Emergent Church: Suffocating Truth Inside Postmodernism

This blog is not to inform readers on the specifics of the movement known as the "Emerging Church". If you have not heard or read anything about it, you might consider checking it out because it is becoming a major issue at hand in the Church. Many of its proponents are coming out with books left and right, so you should not have trouble finding things to read about it. The movement itself is too complex to blog about. The beliefs are wide-ranging and the shifts are never-ending, and my own research could be called nascent. However, there are men of the faith who are old enough to have seen its developments and they have published and spoken about it. The first link I offer you is to a sermon by John Macarthur (pastor of Grace Community Church) from a chapel service of the seminary where he presides as president. I believe this semester's chapel services are going to all be on the topic of the Emergent Church. So keep checking the link for more sermons as time goes on: Chapel Services.

The second link I give you is merely to Christianbooks.com to check out D.A. Carson's new book: Becoming Conversant With the Emerging Church. I have begun reading this book and I'm about half way through it and it is great. He is very level-headed about his review and even points out positive things the movement pushes. However, Carson is a doctrinally sound brother who has done much for the faith and he measures everything biblically.

It is probably also wise to read the things actually being written by the Emergent Church leaders and especially by their poster-boy Brian McLaren. This way you can get a first hand account for their teachings.

My cry is that we love the Bible and heed what it says when it commands us not to "be taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit" (Colossians 2:8) or "do not lean upon your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). We can screw up a lot of things when we boast in intellectualism. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Constantine, Crusades, and The Christ

I'm currently reading a book for my Western Religions class about Islam, Judaism, and Christianity called "The Children of Abraham". A book which I could probably blog over for a good while considering the way the author likes to intertwine all three religions and dissect them to a point where there are no defining lines left. However, I ran across something tonight that just about moved me to tears. I was reading about Constantine's "conversion" (speculative) and the dream he had before he claimed the name of Christ. He was on the war path and in the dream he saw the vision of a cross and a voice told him, "In this sign you will conquer." Taking the voice to be Christ's, Constantine converted and from then on he fought "in the name of the Lord." When I read this my stomach churned, and the more I thought about it, the more I did not like it. When was Jesus a promoter of political wars? When did he ever endorse a country's desire to spread its dominion? Yet he tells one of the greatest emperors of Rome to conquer by way of the cross?? And was it not in a Roman ruled Jerusalem where Jesus spoke to Pontius Pilate telling him, "My kingdom is not of this world."? And so begins one of the earliest smearings of Jesus' name. The cross going forth as a good-luck charm that guarantees victory in war. And the opposing country's first notion of Christ is that he is the war god of Rome coming to kill them. Lovely Constantine....just lovely....

But the book had another quote that hit me even harder. "The pope, as the vicar of Christ on earth, had the authority to order even non-Christian sovereigns (Muslims) to admit preachers of the Gospels into their lands, and, if they refused, to authorize Christian princes to use force to effect their entry." HOW CAN THIS NOT NAUSEATE A TRUE LOVER OF CHRIST? At this time in history - sadly so - the Roman Catholic church was seen as the representative of Christ. People who claimed otherwise were burned or excommunicated. And in this quote we see their idea of missions: "I command you to let us into your land so we can preach about Jesus, and if you don't we will kill you until you let us preach the gospel." Consequently, in this era, the "church" was not seen as the body of Christ on earth; dying to themselves, loving those who don't know the truth, pursuing the souls of the lost, preferring their own death over others. Nope. The "church" was seen as an army of armor-clad catholic knights bearing a cross on their chests as they slaughtered their way into a foreign land to preach (with words only) a gospel already ruined by their actions. What gospel is this? How is this different from the world? How will you have disciples if you have already killed them?

I read this all as history dawned on me: The church was dark and nearly snuffed out for almost 1200 years. Catholicism reigned and the most "Christ-like" figure the "church" had to offer was the pope who sat atop his throne wearing the finest silks and eating the finest foods, living in the finest houses. His subjects kissed his rings and his toes as he represented the God-man Jesus Christ who said, "Let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves." And the same Christ got down on his knees and washed his disciples' feet. The same Christ that said, "I have not come to be served, but to serve."

Let those who have been truly reborn pray that God would sovereignly heal the wounds of what has been done in Jesus' name in the past. Let Him grant us favor with those who have seen "Crusader Jesus" before they heard about the Cross of Christ.

THE FARGO

It's been approximately one month since my last entry...but seeing as how there are only two people who ever look at my blog (you know who you are) I don't see it as an earth-shattering thing. However, at the request of D.O. (oops...one of the two) I will post. How could I deny the author of The Online Diary for the Masses? If I would have done so, it would have been under the penalty of death - or perhaps having my shoe thrown across the room during night church. Either way, it's no barrel of monkeys.

My latest update is that I have a new occupation. I am now a member of Team Fargo at the Wells Fargo location on Briarcrest (motorbank...not the lobby). The above picture is the Wells Fargo wagon that we all have so beautifully displayed on our Wells Fargo cards - that is, if you have one. (If you don't, I can fix you up...and not because I'm cool, just because I work there.) The wagon's operators are not my coworkers though some of you probably were wondering that very thing. So if you get a chance, please come by the motorbank any business day from 2-6 and I will be there, handing out money to those who already have it. Charlie Appel has already taken advantage of this oppurtunity and I'm sure he was blessed. (For his account of the story call 817-705-6950.)

***On a serious note, pray for the Lord to build trusting relationships between me and my coworkers so I can speak truth into their lives.***