James 3:9-12
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
I like the way James challenges us in this passage. A spring is characterized by the type of water that flows from it. You can go up to a spring, drink the water, and clearly distinguish what kind of spring it is. It's quite obvious which one it is because saltwater and freshwater are opposites. The two cannot coexist in the same spring. You either have one or the other.
The same should be the case with our words. From the way you talk and the things that you say, can people tell that you're a Christian? Last year, I had an awkward TA for one of my classes. My friends and I would sit in the back and crack jokes and complain about her all the time. If you were to ask them if I was a Christian, their response would be a no. The words that were coming out of my mouth were no different than theirs and yet I claim to be a follower of Christ. I knew this full well and yet there was something comforting about ragging on a TA that handed out low scores so I continued. I placed my desire before God's and it reflected in my speech. Matthew 15:18 says that "the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean'". Here lies the root of my problem: my heart.
What comes out of my mouth reflects what is on my heart. This furthers the importance of meeting with God everyday and looking for Him to continually teach me. There is no room in my heart to fill it with pluralism.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Wait, but I'm not Catholic...
After a long hiatus, I'm back in the book of James. Today's reading comes from James 2:14-26
Faith and Deeds
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is uselessd]">[d]? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"e]">[e] and he was called God's friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
....................................................................................................................................................................
This passage has always been a bit confusing for me. Martin Luther preached faith alone while the Catholic church preached faith and works as a means for salvation. How does one reconcile this verse about faith without works being dead and Ephesians 2:8 - "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." ?
In the past , I think I neglected the context of the book of James. James was writing to Jewish Christians of whom were being persecuted at the time. He warned them against both hypocritical behavior and being Christians by mouth alone.
James isn't saying that works are necessary for our salvation. He's saying that works should be the outcome of our faith in Christ. If we say that Jesus is Lord and yet neglect His teachings, do we really believe that Jesus is Lord? My dad and I have a close relationship and I trust him deeply. Suppose for a second that I was going around talking about how much I trust my dad and boasting about it. The next second, my dad comes by and asks to borrow my ipod because he wants to listen to a song, promising that he'll give it back when he's done. Afraid that he won't give my ipod back, I decide not to give it to him. Well, somethings gotta give. My words say that I have faith in my dad's word while my actions say otherwise.
James gives us two very clear examples of faith in action: Abraham and Rahab. In the case of Abraham, God promised him a son and that son did not come for many years. God promised lots of stuff for Abraham and his son and Abraham was faithful. He waited upon the Lord. Now fast forward and Abraham and Sara have Issac, the son that God promised. Issac grows up and Abraham has the joy of being a father and also can rest assured that God will fulfill his promises about Abraham and the generations to come. Next thing you know, God tells Abraham to sacrifice Issac on an alter. Wait, what the?! How is God going to keep His promises if the lineage ends when Issac dies on an altar? Well, those would have been my thoughts anyway. Good thing I'm not Abraham. Abraham responded in faith by obeying God and taking His son to the altar only to be rewarded in his faith by not having to sacrifice Issac afterall.
Abraham said he was a man of faith and it showed. He listened to God even when it was tough. He obeyed when it made him uncomfortable. He followed God when things didn't make a lick of sense. He trusted God even when God's will and his will were in conflict. That is faith and deeds, not just saying all this stuff but really living it up for God.
That's a huge challenge to me. Am I growing in my faith? Is my faith something that's transforming the way that I act? Is my faith one that only serves God when its easy or is it one that continually trusts God when the darkness sets in and my back is against the wall? To be honest, I find myself in the latter of those two way too often. I'm fearful. I'm scared of getting mocked. I'm scared of possible outcomes and scenarios. Time to pray for change.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
If You're Not First, You're Last
Revelation 2:4 "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love."
I used to think of this song in the context of the bad Lifehouse. A couple years ago, Lifehouse released a song called "The First Time" and in that song, they sang about the feeling that a person has when he falls in love for the first time. The wonder and awe of a brand new relationship is something of wonder. As Lifehouse puts it "It's like feeling alive all over again." Does God really want me to be super emotional and balls out crazy for Him? Maybe, but being in some emotional high the rest of my life sounds unrealistic. And even so, some people aren't emotional people to begin with. The first love concept in terms of human emotion is something that is merely relative rather than concrete. Let's take a hypothetical situation. Let's suppose that I was in that period of first love and my response was "meh..", does that mean that I could just say "meh.." about serving God? I don't think so..
When the world first is used in this verse, I don't think its referring to that emotional state though. I think it's talking more so about position relative to other things. The first and greatest commandment is to "love the Lord with all your heart". In this case, first refers to primary and most important. God SHOULD be our primary love but is He really? Or is our primary love worldliness, materialism, self ambition, and the like? Here's a scary thought. If God isn't our first love, He holds this against us. But "if God is for us, who can be against us?" so says scripture. Well, what if He's against us? The thought of the One that spoke the universe into motion being against me is not something that puts me at ease. I think it's only fair to take a hard look in the mirror after this and really evaluate where my heart is at. Is God my primary love? Is His glory the driving for in all that I do? Does my heart desire to serve Him and serve Him only?
One thing that my track coach used to say "If you're not first, you're last. " You either win conference or no one remembers how well or poorly you did. I feel like such is the case with this verse too. Either God is first in your life or He isn't. Even if I study really hard and put studying before God and push God to a narrow second, He isn't my primary love anymore, is He?
I used to think of this song in the context of the bad Lifehouse. A couple years ago, Lifehouse released a song called "The First Time" and in that song, they sang about the feeling that a person has when he falls in love for the first time. The wonder and awe of a brand new relationship is something of wonder. As Lifehouse puts it "It's like feeling alive all over again." Does God really want me to be super emotional and balls out crazy for Him? Maybe, but being in some emotional high the rest of my life sounds unrealistic. And even so, some people aren't emotional people to begin with. The first love concept in terms of human emotion is something that is merely relative rather than concrete. Let's take a hypothetical situation. Let's suppose that I was in that period of first love and my response was "meh..", does that mean that I could just say "meh.." about serving God? I don't think so..
When the world first is used in this verse, I don't think its referring to that emotional state though. I think it's talking more so about position relative to other things. The first and greatest commandment is to "love the Lord with all your heart". In this case, first refers to primary and most important. God SHOULD be our primary love but is He really? Or is our primary love worldliness, materialism, self ambition, and the like? Here's a scary thought. If God isn't our first love, He holds this against us. But "if God is for us, who can be against us?" so says scripture. Well, what if He's against us? The thought of the One that spoke the universe into motion being against me is not something that puts me at ease. I think it's only fair to take a hard look in the mirror after this and really evaluate where my heart is at. Is God my primary love? Is His glory the driving for in all that I do? Does my heart desire to serve Him and serve Him only?
One thing that my track coach used to say "If you're not first, you're last. " You either win conference or no one remembers how well or poorly you did. I feel like such is the case with this verse too. Either God is first in your life or He isn't. Even if I study really hard and put studying before God and push God to a narrow second, He isn't my primary love anymore, is He?
Monday, September 7, 2009
One Body, Many Parts, One Purpose
Praise God for the awesome weekend! God really blessed me with a better picture of what the Church really is this weekend. I'm not talking about individual churches like CFC, CCUC or CStone but rather the Church with a capital C, the body of believers.
I have played in a church sponsored basketball tournament every year since sixth grade. It started off as something fun. Go to church, play basketball with a bunch of your friends, and hopefully win so you have some bragging rights over everyone else until the next year's tournament. With age, the competition grew tougher and tougher and the wins became more sparse. Even though I'm not a serious baller, I HATE losing. Once I got to high school, I prayed before every tournament that I would carry myself in a manner that would glorify God. And every year since then, I left the tournament disappointed. The weight of missed shots, sloppy passes, isolationist offensive strategies, and lost games placed a large burden on my heart. In the heat of the moment, playing in this tournament ceased to be about God and became about performance on the court and the final box score. That was the case until this past weekend.
I came into this tournament with very much the same attitude that I had in past years. I changed teams from last year because my friends lured me in by inflating my head and ego with the idea of winning the ever so elusive championship. This team was not like most. They played with intensity on offense and defense. They worked offensive possessions by moving the ball around. They had a bunch of six-footers on the roster to play in an Asian tournament where your average dude is 5'5. How could I pass that up?
From tip-off to the final buzzer, the first game was a disaster. The other team won the tip off and score on a floater 10 seconds into the game. Our defensive rotation, or lack there of, led to lots of threes which hit nothing but net. Attitudes flared and one of our opponents provoked us with both his mouth and his antics. We complained about bad calls and had less than encouraging words for our fellow teammates. Long story short, we lost both the game and the spiritual battle. For a team that was supposed to win it all, this was not what we envisioned.
After the game, we sat down and talked. We didn't talk about basketball or the missed plays but about the reason why we're playing. As we were talking, we all looked at our jerseys which read "Promote Christ" across the chest. We failed to live up to our name. Thank God for second chances. That game was a wake up call, not to play harder, but to be representatives of Christ on the basketball court.
The games after that, win or loss, were spectacular. We weren't two different teams trying to beat each other. We were different people with different backgrounds playing for one purpose and one purpose only: to serve the God we love and make him known through our actions. Through the postgame prayers, this was so evident as our teams gathered into a huddle and lifted up praise to God.
It's awesome to see stuff like this, seriously. You take two people with nothing in common, different languages, schools, churches, hobbies, talents, and all that other fun stuff and you see that none of that matters. What brings us together is something so simple and yet so very profound at the same time. We are children of God of whom He loves deeply. It's His love that unifies us. It's that love that holds us together even though we have nothing else in common. It's that very love that gives us the same purpose and allows us to relate to brothers and sisters of whom we've never met before. The message is all the same. While we were still sinners, God reached out to us. In our depravity, He took the necessary steps for us to be redeemed even though we did things contrary to His desires. In our sin, He continues to love us and bear with us in patience.
Church isn't just a building. It isn't the place that you go to fellowship. It isn't just the people you see every Sunday and sit next to during service and sing songs with. The Church is the body of believers from all backgrounds and ways of life coming together to know our Savior and to make Him known.
As I sit here and reflect upon the weekend, it isn't the basketball plays that stand out. It isn't our 3-2 record with a third place trophy either. What stands out the most is the opportunity that God blessed our church with to fellowship with dozens of other churches from the Midwest unified under one roof to glorify our God. What a blessed weekend.
I have played in a church sponsored basketball tournament every year since sixth grade. It started off as something fun. Go to church, play basketball with a bunch of your friends, and hopefully win so you have some bragging rights over everyone else until the next year's tournament. With age, the competition grew tougher and tougher and the wins became more sparse. Even though I'm not a serious baller, I HATE losing. Once I got to high school, I prayed before every tournament that I would carry myself in a manner that would glorify God. And every year since then, I left the tournament disappointed. The weight of missed shots, sloppy passes, isolationist offensive strategies, and lost games placed a large burden on my heart. In the heat of the moment, playing in this tournament ceased to be about God and became about performance on the court and the final box score. That was the case until this past weekend.
I came into this tournament with very much the same attitude that I had in past years. I changed teams from last year because my friends lured me in by inflating my head and ego with the idea of winning the ever so elusive championship. This team was not like most. They played with intensity on offense and defense. They worked offensive possessions by moving the ball around. They had a bunch of six-footers on the roster to play in an Asian tournament where your average dude is 5'5. How could I pass that up?
From tip-off to the final buzzer, the first game was a disaster. The other team won the tip off and score on a floater 10 seconds into the game. Our defensive rotation, or lack there of, led to lots of threes which hit nothing but net. Attitudes flared and one of our opponents provoked us with both his mouth and his antics. We complained about bad calls and had less than encouraging words for our fellow teammates. Long story short, we lost both the game and the spiritual battle. For a team that was supposed to win it all, this was not what we envisioned.
After the game, we sat down and talked. We didn't talk about basketball or the missed plays but about the reason why we're playing. As we were talking, we all looked at our jerseys which read "Promote Christ" across the chest. We failed to live up to our name. Thank God for second chances. That game was a wake up call, not to play harder, but to be representatives of Christ on the basketball court.
The games after that, win or loss, were spectacular. We weren't two different teams trying to beat each other. We were different people with different backgrounds playing for one purpose and one purpose only: to serve the God we love and make him known through our actions. Through the postgame prayers, this was so evident as our teams gathered into a huddle and lifted up praise to God.
It's awesome to see stuff like this, seriously. You take two people with nothing in common, different languages, schools, churches, hobbies, talents, and all that other fun stuff and you see that none of that matters. What brings us together is something so simple and yet so very profound at the same time. We are children of God of whom He loves deeply. It's His love that unifies us. It's that love that holds us together even though we have nothing else in common. It's that very love that gives us the same purpose and allows us to relate to brothers and sisters of whom we've never met before. The message is all the same. While we were still sinners, God reached out to us. In our depravity, He took the necessary steps for us to be redeemed even though we did things contrary to His desires. In our sin, He continues to love us and bear with us in patience.
Church isn't just a building. It isn't the place that you go to fellowship. It isn't just the people you see every Sunday and sit next to during service and sing songs with. The Church is the body of believers from all backgrounds and ways of life coming together to know our Savior and to make Him known.
As I sit here and reflect upon the weekend, it isn't the basketball plays that stand out. It isn't our 3-2 record with a third place trophy either. What stands out the most is the opportunity that God blessed our church with to fellowship with dozens of other churches from the Midwest unified under one roof to glorify our God. What a blessed weekend.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Hillsong London - You Are Here
There is a love that I know
A strength for the weak and the broken heart
My Shepherd and King
I find You within me
For you are here
My Lord forever
You are here
Verse 2:
You carried the cross for the world
Gathered the lost and the fatherless
My Shepherd and King
I find You within me
For You are here
My Lord forever
You are here
Chorus:
In this place, you are here
By Your mercy, I draw near
In my heart, take your place
You are here
Verse 3:
Your word is the light of the earth
Your glory resounds in the universe
My Shepherd and King
I find You within me
For You are here
My Lord forever
You are here
Chorus
Vamp
You are here
You are here
You are here
Bridge:
The same power that conquered the grave
Lives in me, Lives in me
Your love that rescued the earth
Lives in me, lives in me
Vamp:
You are here
You are here
You are here
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
James 1:22-25
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
Spirituality aside, I'm a much better talker than do-er. At the beginning of each day, I have detailed plans for how I plan to use my free time, whether it be to run or to study or something else. Very rarely do my plans ever become reality. I'm a pretty lazy person with a lack of self-discipline. Now put that in the context of my walk with Christ. Very often, I hear the word of God, store it in my head, and move on with my life. I say that I desire to walk with Christ yet my actions don't reflect this. I let convictions pass on by because acting upon them would be too uncomfortable. I've tried and tried to change this on my own only to fall back down to where I started. But as I read yesterday, God answers our prayers when we come to Him in faith. I think it's time that I depend on God's transforming power rather than my own.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
Spirituality aside, I'm a much better talker than do-er. At the beginning of each day, I have detailed plans for how I plan to use my free time, whether it be to run or to study or something else. Very rarely do my plans ever become reality. I'm a pretty lazy person with a lack of self-discipline. Now put that in the context of my walk with Christ. Very often, I hear the word of God, store it in my head, and move on with my life. I say that I desire to walk with Christ yet my actions don't reflect this. I let convictions pass on by because acting upon them would be too uncomfortable. I've tried and tried to change this on my own only to fall back down to where I started. But as I read yesterday, God answers our prayers when we come to Him in faith. I think it's time that I depend on God's transforming power rather than my own.
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