Confession is Good

Why people confess things to me, I don't know.  Maybe it is because I make a conscious effort not to repeat what is confessed.  Maybe others think I am safe.  I am not safe.  And I will use what others have told me without revealing who, in order to write this post.  Unsure of how to respond to some of these admissions, I often feel like a cow staring at a new gate. 

One Christian confesses, "I am reading 50 Shades of Gray.  I love it.  That is how twisted I am."

Another bashfully chuckles to me, "What if I like my sin?"

I listen dumbfounded.  I want to tell them both to go take a long walk off a short pier.  I want to tell them to repent.  Maybe I should do both of those things.  I wonder if Pastors think the way I am thinking.  I become angry and have to confess my own sin.  

These are confessions that tell me these statements are not of faith.  They are admitting to rebellion and lawlessness; faithlessness.  On these admissions, they have believed the lie of Satan that Christian freedom means abandonment of the bounds of love; choosing self justification instead of love of neighbor.  It is hard to listen to because it is on these points that relationships are severed, as it breaks our unity in Christ Jesus.

Be sure you hear me on this:  I am not saying they are not Christians.  I am saying on these admissions, they need Christ's absolution.

One good brother, gave me this advice:  Tell them the gospel of forgiveness of sin.  They will either receive it, or stop making confessions to you.

Thank you, brother, for teaching me how to hear these things from others; and how to minister to their unbelief by pointing them back to Jesus.

Continuous Line

While lolling about and watching a movie, we were practicing our abilities at blind line contours.  We laughed at the results.  Many cyclops, monkeys, and Punches of Punch and Judy fame emerged on our papers.  Then something clicked for me.  Line contours made me think of the continuing existing self.

The continuing existing self is our attempt to clean up our old nature and make it behave in order to please God, it's a feeble attempt at not needing a Savior to rescue us.  A line contour is an art exercise where your pen never leaves the paper and your eyes look only at the subject you are attempting to outline.  Both of these have one continuous line, both end up with non perfect results.  One practice is more deadly than the other. 

The Holy Spirit kills that continuing existing self in order to create a new creature of faith.  It is wonderful to reckon onself dead to the law so that one can be hidden in Christ.  I have a new master who loves me, not the old master that has pointed bony fingers.

Blazing Clear Like Oedipus Rex

It is our human condition.  Pagans know it.  We all know it.  We all try to run and hide from it. We run and run, sometimes exhausting ourselves.  Rushing to and fro until we can rush no longer.  But there is nowhere to find shelter.  We are in a flight situation.  Fleeing without destination.  Fleeing for life and limb.  What are we trying to hide from?

 It is guilt and shame.  We all have it because we are all guilty.  We all have pasts we would like to erase.   Even the goody two-shoes have guilt and shame.  Oedipus, the pagan king, had guilt and shame.  He tried to outrun it by gouging out his eyes.  That did not absolve Oedipus from any of his actions, though. Oedipus knows that he is the man.  There is a deeper, underlying question that pagans cannot answer.

Who are we trying to hide from?  We are trying to hide from the true God.  Sophocles, the author of Oedipus, just like all of humanity, had God's law written on his heart and knew right from wrong as is evidenced by the play.  Here are some excerpts:

"My birth all sprung revealed from those it never should; myself entwined with those I never could; and I the killer of those I never would."

Oedipus rips the golden brooches she was wearing, holds them up, and rams them home right through his eyes.

"O yes, I pierced my eyes -- my useless eyes --why not?  When all that's sweet and parted from my vision."

Sophocles lived before Jesus' incarnation, and it was the Jews that had prophets proclaiming the revealed God of promise.  Today, unlike Sophocles' day, we have more preachers who can deliver to us the justifying God.  You do not have to be like Oedipus, beating yourself up, exhausting yourself, damaging yourself because you know that you, too, are the guilty one.  You can find your rest from your guilt and shame that continues to haunt you.

The promise of God has come.  Jesus, the one true God, has forgiven you your sins.

Kickback for Defending Marriage

Mark 6 tells us the gift received by St. John the Baptizer when he defended the biblical idea of marriage.     The adulterous Queen Herodias required of him his head, and her daughter wanted it delivered on a plate.  I imagine so as not to get her hands bloody.  Mark 6:18 tells us that our beloved brother, St John the Baptist, was imprisoned for pointing out sin.

It is no wonder the world becomes angry, much like Queen Herodias, when they hear of biblical marriage.  We sinners always want things our way.  We are like three year olds throwing a tantrum.  But with political power and money we become more like bullies, threatening, if Christians do not agree that men can marry men, and women can marry women.  The culture can call that a marriage, but it does not make it so.  It is only God who can define what is a marriage.

Even facing all the spittle that comes our way when we defend marriage, Jesus died for the spitters too.  They, too, can become free with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Praise Him.

Category errors

While talking with some brothers and sisters, they were believing that laying on of hands is where one receives the Holy Spirit.  They were also calling laying on of hands a baptism.  Laying on of hands is nowhere referred to as a baptism in scripture.  Thereby, making the error of multiple baptisms.  Speaking of "water baptism" and distinguishing it from "baptism with the Holy Spirit".  "We receive the holy spirit in the laying on of hands." These statements made it clear that they believed the error of multiple baptisms.   Laying on of hands is not where the Holy Spirit is promised to us.

In the great commission, Jesus tells us to go and baptize, thereby making disciples.  He does not tell us to go  and lay hands on others to make disciples.  Also in Jesus' own baptism we see the Triune God, with the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus.  Our own baptism brings the Holy Spirit to us, as well as remission of sins.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!  Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!  Amen.

Who Is Predestined? Part 1

As humans we become so self-focused that we automatically think predestination is about us.  Jesus is the one that is foreknown because he is God, the second person of the trinity.   Jesus is the one who was predestined for us and for our salvation.  Believers are placed in Jesus, the predestined One.  Jesus was chosen before time to be our salvation.

Many Christians talk about themselves and God choosing them as if they existed prior to being born.  That is what mormons believe, that they were "spirit babies" floating around, waiting to be born.  That is not Christian belief.

Who is the one that is predestined?  Let's look at two passages.  

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.    ~ Eph 1:4, ESV

but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you   ~1 Peter 1:19-20, ESV

It is clear it is Jesus who is the predestined One.  When we are in Him, we, too, are predestined.  Father places us in His Son, by using various means.  Those means are preaching of the Gospel, or baptism when the name of the Triune God is placed on us.  

Look! Over There!

Ever listen to that old song, "Lookin for Love in All the Wrong Places"?  The title alone tells of a common human error.  We look for love in the wrong places, and we look for God in the wrong places.  Some Christians will look for God where He does not reveal himself.  They will try to seek God in election, or in predestination.  God has not told us to look for him there.

It is in Christ that we are to look to for understanding.  We see Father in Jesus, when he heals the sick; and when he chastens the pharisees.  We see Father in Jesus, when he spends time with sinners.  We see Father in Jesus, reconciling the whole world to himself while on the cross.  We see Father in Jesus, triumphant and resurrected.