Cogitations by Brad

I was browsing through a Christian bookstore today, and just so happened to pick up a lesson planner that had some ideas about teaching lessons. I don’t remember the title exactly, but it was about the hard teachings of Jesus. I read the first lesson, which covered the rich young ruler, and it gave me a new perspective on the story.

The ruler, even though he had kept all of the commandments, Jesus told him that he had to sell all he had to be able to inherit the kingdom of God. The ruler left, not feeling so good about himself. I always thought the point was that we have to share what we’ve been given, to be generous to others.

The way the author explains it though, he says that the money, and the garments that made him appear as a ruler, defined him in society. It was his money that he had put his hope in in life, and the only way for him to truly be a Christian, he needed to shed off that old societal definition of being rich, young, and a ruler, and to become fully devoted to God.

It’s the same with us. We are defined by our popularity, by the crowd we fit in, and even by our wealth. I see in myself that I often define myself by the way other people see me. Whether I feel like a “fun” person at the time, or slightly boring, often my self-worth is measured by what society tells me. I’ve recently had problems with vehicles, and two incidents happened with my car. When something of monetary value of mine is threatened, I start to worry, and it gives me huge butterflies so much so that I can’t sleep. Jesus tells us not to worry about food or clothing, and yet I can’t even imagine life without a car. I think this was the rich young rulers problem. He was defined by his wealth, and so if he lost it, he would be a nobody.

When we are defined so much by something in this world, we lose our definition as Christians. We put our hope in our jobs, instead of our walk with God. Or maybe our hope is in the car we drive, or the crowd we are with, or even our family. All these things are blessings to have, but they can easily come between us and God.

What’s it going to take for us to be God’s child, to see ourselves by what God sees, and not by what’s on the outside. We need to leave the popular crowd, and reach out to those who are a little lower than ourselves. We have to get out of our mind off of the cars we can’t afford, the clothes that make us look like snobs, and the newest Gadget that might give us a couple of hours of entertainment.

So what is Jesus saying to us. “Leave your best friends, and follow me” (2 Cor 6:14). “Don’t work so many hours at your job; teach your kids about my love.” Jesus tells us to put our teasure in heaven, instead of in things that are just temporary on the earth. What are you defined by?

Forgiveness is all about perspective. Sounds good, right. It popped into my head, and now I’m going to explain to you, and myself, why it makes sense.

Well, I know that right and wrong is all about perspective. When you’re committing the act, it’s not so bad. You may not even feel bad after the fact until someone explains it to you from outside eyes.

Forgiveness is the other way around. When someone does you wrong, you can’t really know exactly what was going on, but you have to understand that there were some circumstances that may have caused the wrongdoing. It’s not always easy, and sometimes, the act makes absolutely no sense at all. I guess that’s where other people come in. You talk to them, and some people may say, “Yeah, you’re right to be mad, that person totally did you wrong!” Does that help though? I would say it only fuels the fire. It’s the person who says, “Well, think about it this way… and… then… … now tell me you would do differently if given the circumstances.” They give you a perspective into the eyes of the other person that you may not have seen before. The person who doesn’t want to forgive won’t be happy with your answer, but the person who does will be willing to let the person off the hook and to forgive.

Christ commands us to forgive 70×7 times, which, even if you take it literally, someone is probably not going to sin against you that many times, so I would say there’s no limit. Forgive as Christ forgives.

So we had LCU’s Best Friends come and sing for our college group tonight. They all had good voices, and did a good job performing, but one thing I have a huge problem with is getting “worship” confused with “entertainment.”

First of all, I’m going to define worship. From what I’ve seen in the bible, worship can mean one of two things. One can live a life of worship. Also, a group of people can worship together in song, or in the old testament worship was through sacrifice. Worship can be displeasing as in the case of Cain, Nadab and Abihu, Saul, and the many other times. It’s easy for worship to become unacceptable to God as we see in these cases.

I used to sing a group, and at times I struggled with whether it was acceptable to God to do so. We were not a praise team, and we never said we were up there in order to “worship.”

I have come to the conclusion that any performances, by singing groups or choirs, are to be considered as entertainment. Entertainment is not worship, because worship is for God, not for man.

You can’t believe everything about anything, with the exception of God and His Word. I think that’s a big problem with people and religion. It’s easier just to take everything we hear, and all the traditions we have, and except them as right.

In Hezekiah’s day, there were high places, which were places of worship. As my teacher in class told us today, tradition is what you’ve experienced, and for all we know, it may not have been tradition before us. The high places had always been there for the Israelites during the time of Hezekiah, and so when he tore them down, he tore down their tradition.

Jesus did similar things to the Pharisees. He stood up to what would be the preachers and elders of the day, and told them their religion was fake. I’ve seen a lot of parallels in Christianity today and what the Pharisees were doing. If we are just Christians with words, but no actions, we are no better than the Pharisees.

I don’t think we should be full-time skeptics, but if we believe everything that’s stated in the pulpit and everything that’s “tradition” to us, we won’t be doing the full will of God, which is written in His Word.

Just something to chew on.

Just recently, I went on a camping trip, and I was in the sun so much that I came home with a sunburn. I’ve been thinking a lot about Christ’s humanity, and how as a full human being He was able to be so close to God, and to know God so well. It seems to me that He was completely human, and was only empowered by the Holy Spirit to teach, prophesy, and perform miracles. This seems to be in line with the gospels and Phil 2:6-7.

When Moses came from Mount Sinai, his face was radiant because he had been in the presence of God (Exodus 34:29-35). We should strive for a relationship so close to God, so close to Christ, that we get a “Son Burn.” People should see Jesus shine from us (Matt 5:16).

Christ said for us to be perfect as God is perfect (Matt 5:48), but we use excuses, such as “I’m only human.” Imperfection should be accepted, but perfection should be continually striven for.

Enoch isn’t spoken of much in the Bible, but it says he walked with God (Genesis 5:21-24).

Jacob wrestled with God, and overcame according to Genesis 32:22-31. We need to struggle with (notice I didn’t say against) God in our life.

A mature Christian needs to walk with God, wrestle with God, and strive for perfection.

In the old testament, one of the things that I think God was trying to stress the most is that he wants our hearts. He wishes for us to have a need to serve him; not because we’re scared of hell, or because our parents said so, but because we have a need for God, and because we’re nothing without Him.

Isaiah makes it clear when he speaks the words of the Lord, “‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men” (Isaiah 29:13). They enforced the details of the law, and only followed them out of tradition. Their worship and praise was meaningless.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, basically makes a point that the law isn’t the important part of following God. If you read through it, you’ll find multiple, “You have heard… but I tell you” phrases. “You have heard… ‘Do not murder’… But I tell you… anyone who is angry… will be subject to judgement” (Matthew 5:21-22). “You have heard… ‘do not commit adultery’… but I tell you… anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

I’m not saying that the law isn’t important, because it is given to us for a reason. Jesus states to the woman at the well that people would worship in “Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). Without spirit, our life in Christ will not last, but without truth, our life in Christ will be in vain. We have to follow God, both with our hearts, and by the Word of God.

In early Israelite days, God chose for the people to have judges. These judges would direct the people in the ways of God. But the people were unhappy with this system of rule. They looked around at the other nations and saw how all the nations around them had a king. They said to Samuel, “‘Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations’” (I Samuel 8:5). They rejected the will of God. “The LORD said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them’” (I Samuel 8:7). They went by their gut-feeling rather than trusting in God.

In many, many churches today, we see a lot of gut-feeling decisions. They’re not based on the Word of God, but rather, what they feel should be done. God does have a will, and even though people may believe that the Bible is a guide for us to pick and choose what to follow, there is no foundation in that belief. “…Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). The will of God, as stated here is “good”, “acceptable”, and “perfect.” Divisions in the Church were created by people who pick and choose what they want to follow. A verse here, a verse there, and they’ve created a new Church.

Sin in our personal lives occurs because of our own selfish desires. We look around, and are jealous of others living in sin. It’s appealing on the outside. But in Romans 12:23, it tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” But we have hope in Jesus Christ, because “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We cannot live in sin and be in Christ Jesus.

God is a forgiving God, and if it were not for that, we would have no hope. After the Israelites had chosen a king, Samuel confronted the people, and they repented.“Then all the people said to Samuel, ‘Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.’ Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile’” (I Samuel 12:19-21).

In a recent class I was in, we discussed Godly wisdom. In everything wordly, we see “bitter jealousy” and “selfish ambition” (James 3:14). These lead to destruction. But with Godly wisdom, when a person is no longer seeking glory for themselves, the world becomes a better place.

So how do we get wisdom from above? David tells Solomon to “seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures” (Proverbs 2:4). We are told to pray for it in James: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

In James 3:17, this wisdom is summed up: “…The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.” With wisdom from above, life is more fulfilling.

We can learn many lessons from the life of Paul. We originally see him at the stoning of Stephen, watching over the coats of the witnesses (Acts 7:58). A friend of mine recently pointed out the fact that Paul’s vain beliefs, when he was Saul, can be compared to many people today.

Paul, originally known as Saul, was zealous for what he believed. He followed his heart in everything, and took action for what he believed. He knew that Christianity was only a cult following a maniac. He was one of the most enthusiastic to see that it was stopped. But what he knew to be right, what he believed, was wrong. He was rebuked by Jesus Himself in a vision (Acts 9:1-18). Saul’s life would have been in vain had he not known the truth. He became a Christian, and wrote over half of the New Testament books.

I would guess that over nine of ten of Christians take everything the preacher says as truth. They accept traditions and habits as Biblical. People chase after what “feels good.” They accept anything for truth as long as it sounds good. But, as Solomon writes over and over in Ecclesiastes, “Everything is Meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 12:8). But, “the conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

If you look for what feels good, even if you’re doing it to serve God, you will come up unsatisfied. The way of true worship can only be found in the Bible.