Relationship God's Way

The newspaper recently reported that what people are looking for these days is a “spiritual” experience without any “religious” guidelines. That’s nothing new, so were Adam and Eve. We tend to want a relationship with God our way. The problem is “our way” is “sin” – which by definition is the lack of conformity to “God’s way”. God and his holy standard are what they are. Wishing or wanting it to be the way I’d prefer it won’t change the reality of God and his revealed standard. The goal of biblical Christianity is to see our thoughts, hearts and lives conformed to what is holy, just and right – according to God’s definition. Which, believe it or not, is best. And because God, the perfect One, has made us for himself, in the end, what is holy, just and right will be exactly what we want. In our fallen state, human desires are all over the map, but when God restores his children, first internally at regeneration and then externally at his coming, we realize that God’s commands “are sure and altogether righteous… more precious than gold… and sweeter than honey” (Ps.19:9-10).

--Pastor Mike 

Good News

To trust in Jesus as the sole provision for my acceptance before God is the essence of the gospel. But by definition this gospel cannot be the same as a gospel which allows you to trust in Jesus plus something else. Many are glad when they find those who “love Jesus” and are quick to consider them participants in the gospel. But the gospel found in the Bible requires more than “accepting Jesus” – it requires that I relinquish my trust in any other means of approval before God. To think that “adding Jesus” to my life is the secret ingredient for salvation is to miss the “substitution” that is at the heart of biblical faith. I cannot add Christ to my efforts, works or good deeds. Christ must replace these! Paul, in describing his personal efforts to do good testifies, “whatever was to my profit I now consider loss” (Phil.3:7). He goes on to say, “I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ” (Phil.3:8-9). The gospel calls us to forsake any trust or confidence in ourselves and instead to trust exclusively in Jesus Christ as the sole provision for our acceptance before God. Adding Christ to a spiritual portfolio or loving Christ as an additional spiritual asset is “another gospel” - which God in the letter to the Galatians goes to great lengths to show is “no gospel at all” (Gal.1:6-7).

-- Pastor Mike

Creation

While many of us affirm the truth that God made the world and that it displays his handiwork, and while some of us go so far as to say that it is God’s strategic source of “general revelation” to mankind, it is unfortunate that most of us take so little time to utilize God’s creation as a catalyst for worship. David states that “the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of his hand… day after day they pour forth speech and night after night they display knowledge” (Ps.19:1-2). That was not just a theological assertion for David, it was most often a stirring prompt to pray, sing and worship the Creator. In Psalm 8 for instance, David recognizes the various ways God’s greatness is seen in the created order (from the stars and the moon to the varieties of herds, birds and fish) only to frame his observations with heartfelt praise: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” (vv.1, 9). While the world is often enamored with God’s creation, yet failing to honor the Creator (Rom.1:25), let us not miss the daily opportunity given to us through the sunsets, constellations or crisp ocean air to specifically and sincerely praise the Creator whose craftsmanship is on perpetual display.

-- Pastor Mike

Be Strong!

We intuitively prefer strength to weakness. And we should. It is a biblical virtue to possess the strength to resiliently face life’s challenges and to “bear up under the pain” we all inevitably encounter (1Pet.2:19; Eph.6:10-13). Thankfully God is desirous of granting his children strength (Is.40:29; Ps.29:11; Phil.4:13). Many do well to ask God for it, but err in passively waiting for its arrival. God would have us get active – specifically in his word! The connection between acquiring strength and indulging in God’s word is unmistakable. David testifies that encounters with God’s written word “revives the soul” (Ps.19:7). John equates the growing strength of spiritual “young men” with “the word of God living in them” (1Jn.2:14). We cannot afford to be ignorant of Satan’s strategy in this matter. To keep us weak, feeble and internally fragile, he only needs to keep us from God’s word. If we are to “overcome the evil one” and possess real strength as those spiritual “young men” in 1 John 2:14, then we must keep our nose in the Book and our mind set on God’s eternal principles.

-- Pastor Mike

Assessing Motives

Unfortunately Christians these days routinely and confidently assert their supposed insight into the thoughts and motives of those with whom they disagree. God’s people are regrettably mirroring the practice of the world by all too often claiming to know what others are thinking. While it is common to routinely impugn motives, the Bible prohibits such arrogant judgments. We may be told to adjudicate words and actions (cf. 1Cor.5:11-13; 6:2-5; et al.), but we cannot possibly judge someone else’s motives. When it comes to “why” someone did what he or she did, the Bible affirms what should be obvious to all: “no one knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him” (1Cor.2:11). Paul says that when it comes to another’s motives we must “wait until the Lord comes” when Christ “will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts” (1Cor.4:5). So let us refrain from saying we know “why” he or she did or said this or that, and let us only deal with ourselves regarding motives. Let us each spend more time allowing the convicting word of God to expose the “thoughts and intentions” of our own hearts as we prepare for the Lord’s arrival (Heb.4:12). Transgressing God’s word in this matter and engaging in accusing one another based on the speculative guesswork of appraising one another’s motives can only lead to trouble.

--Pastor Mike