What You Eat

I believe in the health of your spirit, soul, and body.  Over on my health blog, All Things Health, I posted about Ezekiel 4.  Click here to read it.

The Bridge

This week, both my kids (ages 6 and 11) reacted negatively (and fairly strongly) to a Biblical truth (these were two separate instances).  This was very unusual.  They have both always been excited about the Bible and church and spiritual things I have taught them, in the past.

This got me to thinking about parenting.

Let's think about sending our children across a bridge as the analogy of their maturing process.  Point A is birth and point B is adulthood.  The piers are the values we parents impart.

I think most parents think that by sending their children to church and private school, and maybe even reading them Bible stories, they are putting the supports (values) in place, for a steady, secure life, for their children.  They believe that their children will get to the other side of that bridge safely.

But it doesn't quite work out that way.  I have been doing a lot of learning in the area of understanding my children's heart.  We as parents could be imparting values, but if it just goes in one ear and out the other, without sinking down into the heart of the child, that pier is not made of solid material.  It's going to be a shaky foundation.  It's not going to last.

You may not see the effects right away.  Most of the time, we see the effects when the child is about 3/4 of the way across the bridge, in the teen years.  All of a sudden, the child becomes a totally different (so-called) person.  But in fact, this is who they were all along, in their heart of hearts.  It just took the added stress of teenage-hood to shake the already unsteady foundation of their bridge.

And many times, by the time they reach adulthood, this is what we see...

How do you know if your values are reaching your child's heart?  How do you know if their bridge's piers are solid?  You test them--along the way.  You don't want until the teenage years to see what becomes of them.  Before that, you put some pressure on them, some tension on them (the piers/values).  What do I mean?  All of us will reveal our true character under pressure, the pressures of life.  Tension is a pulling action.  I try to pull out what's inside my kid's hearts by asking lots of questions, have a lot of dialog (not monologue--and I'm still working on that one).

Are your children free to show disagreement (in a respectful way)?  Are they free to ask why you believe what you believe?  Do you ever ask for their opinion on matters of values?  Do they have the freedom to speak their mind to you?

I showed each of my children from the Bible what the truth was (which was different from their own opinions).  We had open discussions about those beliefs.  I'm glad they were able to speak their minds, and I'm sure those issues will come up again.  I could tell they each didn't really find resolution in their own minds.  So, these are piers in their life that are not quite solid yet.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will open their eyes to God's truth in these areas.  (Eph. 1:17-19, Is. 54:13)

If you want to learn more about reaching the heart of your children, I highly recommend reading Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp, and Age of Opportunity by Paul David Tripp.



P.S.  I'm thinking, as I'm writing this, that some of you may be thinking that children don't necessarily have to adopt the values of their parents to have a fine life.  In fact, I've read of parents that want their children to be such "free-thinkers" that they want them to question everything and they in turn expose them to everything and expect that they won't adopt their values.  They think that these "free-thinkers" have brought much needed change and toleration to our world.  So, let me clarify.  I am speaking to Christian parents, and I'm assuming your set of values are based on the Bible, which is the only absolute truth in this world.  If your values are not (now would be a good time to check that out), then I hope your children don't adopt them.

I found top bridge picture at Wikimedia Commons.  It is a picture taken by David Monniaux of the Rio-Antirio Bridge in Greece.  I thought it beautiful.  David Monniaux has no affiliation with this blog whatsoever.  The second picture is of part of I-35 that bridged the Mississippi river.  It is public domain.

Book Review: @#!*% , Rob Bell, and What Happens When People Die by Bobby Conway

I read Rob Bell's newest book, Love Wins, and blogged about it.  You can read that review here.  Then I ran across this book that counters Bell's philosophy by Dr. Bobby Conway.

First, I will say that Rob Bell makes a smooth argument.  You leave the book feeling very persuaded, and it all sounds very nice.  I can see that many will accept this philosophy just based on the feel-good factor.  But, I got to thinking--human nature craves justice.  We all want to see evil punished, things evened out in a fair manner, that is, until it comes to us.  So the "no-hell" theory sounds nice, and makes you feel very comfortable, until you start thinking about the worst offenders in our world--pedophiles, kidnappers, Nazi concentration camp officers, rapists, serial killers--admit it, you want to see them burn.  It's the truth.  That throws a wrench into the works, doesn't it?  This changes things a bit.  You could change your theory to a "bar set really low" theory, it becomes a "most get into heaven" theory, but I do not see how anyone can really have an "everyone gets into heaven" theory.  You say, "well, I'm not nearly as bad as those kind of people, surely God would let me into heaven."  But the fact is, sin is sin, and we all deserve hell.  I'm no better than a lying, thieving, murderous, adulterer.  It say so in James 2:10.

That is how Bobby Conway opens his book, and I like that approach.  With a very loving tone, his focus is on grace.  He does not come from the stance of attacking Bell, but rather goes to the Bible to show the truth.  It's the truth, you deserve hell, I deserve hell, we all do.  And if you follow Bell's thoughts through to their conclusion (which Bell did not do in his own book), you will start to question many, many things about the Bible.  The biggest question becomes, "why did Jesus have to die?"  Conway addresses this issue.  As he puts it, "Why did the Father allow His wrath to be poured out on His Son?"  Doesn't that make God out to be more cruel than the God Bell portrays?  If everyone gets into heaven, there was no point to God's wrath on Jesus.

This brings me to the heart of the matter.  Bell ultimately does not take the Word of God as inerrant, and inspired, he doesn't take it seriously.  Conway puts it this way, "One thing becomes clear when reading Bell’s writings: he is more comfortable casting doubt on the Bible than offering credible contextual interpretations."  He says that we must go to the Word with an attitude of "what does the Bible say?" rather than "what do I want the Bible to say?"  I completely agree.  Conway quotes Darrell Bock, saying, "Bell reads Revelation 21–22 as if Revelation 19–20 did not exist."  I thought the same thing when I read Love Wins.  We cannot pick and choose from the Bible as if it's a salad bar.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that has read Love Wins, or anyone that has questions about heaven, hell, death, or the afterlife.  As Conway puts it, "Jesus wins!"  I agree!

This book is only available in ebook format.  I have to say, I wasn't thrilled about that.  I thought my eyes would get too fatigued reading on my PC (I don't have a Kindle or Nook), but they didn't.  I do like the feel of a book in my hand, but this book is pretty short, so I didn't have to sit at the computer for very long.  It is only 58 pages, not counting end notes, table of contents, etc.  Perhaps it will be released in print at some point.  But don't let the ebook format stop you from checking it out now.

I agree with Conway that it does seem that Bell has the right heart, to see people come to Christ, but I'm telling you, when you start doubting parts of God's Word, you tread on thin ice.  You will open the door for the devil to tempt you with other deceptions--the ultimate being that Jesus is not really the Son of God, He was not really born of a virgin, and therefore cannot save.  If you will recall that is the same thing he did in the Garden of Eden--tempted Eve with doubting God's Word (Gen. 3).  I will be curious to watch the path that Bell follows in the coming years.  I really hope he doesn't end up like the Carlton Pearsons and Charles Templetons of the world, but I see him opening himself up to that.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Book Review: Love Wins by Rob Bell

This book contains some truths, and a lot of falsehoods. I sincerely hope some of the readers get saved through it. I believe the Holy Spirit can work despite false teaching. There are elements here—unconditional love, grace, mercy, the cross, the resurrection, etc.—but I’m not going to recommend this book to any of my unsaved or immature Christian friends or family. I do recommend that a serious student of God’s Word read it. If you are very familiar with doctrine and have at least read through most of the Bible, go ahead and read this for yourself. Otherwise, don’t waste your time, you will just end up confused. I really like what Mark Driscoll says on this topic, “get very familiar with your Bible before you read books about the Bible.”

Now, if you would like to see a breakdown of the things I agreed with and the things I didn’t, read on. If not, don't bother, it is long.  I took notes as I read, and I will list them in the order that I wrote them. I say that not all of these quotes are word for word, I paraphrased some, but I tried to put quotation marks to differentiate between what was in the book and what are my thought.

I will say that I was very, very skeptical upon opening this book. After the second chapter, I was pleasantly surprised that Bell was not as far out there as I imagined. But then after the third chapter, it goes downhill. By chapter six, he lays it all out, and what I had heard was true. And I was very disappointed that Bell did not include footnotes or endnotes, and all of his scripture references are just book and chapter, no specific verse listed; so it's hard to quickly look up the references he includes to see if he's right or wrong.

I am going to read Hell, Rob Bell, and What Happens When People Die by Bobby Conway next and I will post a review. Then I would like to read The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis, since Bell mentioned it.

Love Wins by Rob Bell

Preface – Pg. viii – what part of the gospel is causing people’s stomachs to churn? Who is teaching that only a select few will go to heaven? This sounds blown out of proportion to me. I agree we should be free to question, but that does not mean our opinions are the answers. The answers will only be found in God's Word. Pg. x – he’s not the first to bring these ideas up, he says—so?—that doesn’t make them right ideas.

Chapter 1, pg. 5 – the tone seems mocking.
Pg.6 – the emphasis seems to be on works.
Pg. 7 – that is the problem—most look at salvation as a ticket to heaven and aren’t living for Christ. Just because they are wrong, doesn’t mean the gospel is wrong.
Pg. 9 – I agree, many representations of Christ are false, and should be rejected.
Pg. 10 – "no where in the Bible is the phrase 'personal relationship' with Jesus found." It doesn’t have to be, because it’s the topic of all the epistles! And what about John 15—if you ABIDE in Me, and I in you… And who the heck is this “woman” who wrote the letter to the Hebrews? Hadn’t heard that one before.
Pg. 11 – Bell is taking issue with the fact that accepting, confessing, and believing are all actions. He states we aren’t saved by works (that’s true), so therefore if you tell someone they have to accept Jesus, confess their sins, believe on Jesus, etc., it isn’t grace, or a gift, or good news. Now hold one just a minute. If I go out and buy a really nice item and wrap it up and take it down to the maximum security prison to give to one of the worst prisoners--the least deserving person I can think of, that prisoner has the choice to accept that gift, or reject it, and has to open it in order to use it. How is it any less gracious, or any less of a gift, if he has to take it and open it? See Eph. 2:8—salvation is BY grace, THROUGH faith—it is your faith in the free gift that opens it up for you.
Pg. 13 – Bell is blowing apart the theory that you must recite a specific “sinner’s prayer.” I agree, there isn’t a specific prayer anywhere in the Bible.

Chapter 2, Pg. 30 – Jesus doesn’t refer to heaven, but eternal life, says Bell. (I think this was the rich young ruler passage.) Is Bell trying to break down the image of “heaven” as a far away place? (Yes, he was.) John 17:3 says eternal life is knowing God and that starts here, but I do believe heaven is a real place.
Pg. 33 – Lots of references to the millennium to counter the idea that heaven is a far off place.
Pg. 37 – mention of the “day of the Lord”, so he’s not denying a judgment. This will be the end of injustice, oppression etc. “God declares a ban on weapons.” What? Is he throwing in his political stance here? How about the verses that say Jesus will rule with a rod of iron? That’s a weapon.
Pg. 39 – mention of sins. This surprised me. Do pure universalists (what you call those that believe everyone goes to heaven) believe there are sins?
Pg. 42 – "In ancient times the word heaven was substituted for God because people didn’t like to use the name of God for fear of disrespect" Not sure of the truth in this. "So when you see heaven in the text, it could really mean God." I can’t counter this, but it sounds out there to me. Bell defines heaven as the place where God’s will and only God’s will is done. He says that Jewish tradition was that someday earth and heaven would be one. That may be true, there are many Old Testament passages about the time of the millennial rule and the descriptions are of heaven on earth, but I don't know for sure.
Pg. 43 – I agree that many of our perceptions and traditions of heaven are wrong, and that a lot of people focus on the material possessions of heaven; but the word, “mansions” is in fact in the Bible (John 14:2).
Pg. 45 – bringing in the social causes. I’ve never heard Bell speak, or read any of his other books, but this makes me think he probably preaches a social gospel—feed the poor, don’t trash the earth, make sure those in other countries have fresh clean water etc.—and these are all good things, but the gospel should be our first and foremost priority. Basically, there is an end--that this world will be restored and there will be an end to injustice and misery, and there will be peace and love all around. But there are two approaches to this end. One paradigm says that we Christians must work, work, work, to bring this kingdom into realization. The other paradigm says that Christ will bring His kingdom into being, in His timing, and in His power, regardless of how much we have prepared it for Him. One approach puts us at the center, the other Christ at the center. I prefer to stick with the one with Christ at the center. Does that mean I don't believe in helping the poor? Certainly not! But my focus is not to make this world a better place, but rather to show God's love, to bring that person into a knowledge of the Savior.
Pg. 46 – I agree that we should not just be looking for evacuation from this world. And that's what many look at salvation for--an escape from this life.
Pg. 47 – I don’t like the phrase, “heaven to be about partnering with God to make a new and better world." Bell indicates we start now--this leans too far to social gospel for me. See above on my position, on pg. 45.
Pg. 50 - I don't agree that it is all of your bad qualities that get burned up in I Cor. 3, but rather works of the flesh. You can have a bad character quality, but choose to walk after the Spirit, rather than your flesh, and store up gold, silver, and precious stones, rather than wood, hay, and stubble. I agree that Jesus is interested in heart transformation.
Pg. 51 - Bell says that this idea that in the blink of an eye we will automatically become totally different people who "know" everything brings confusion. No, it's scriptural and you must understand spirit, soul, and body in order to get it. I can think of II Cor. 5:17, Phil. 1:6, I Thess. 5:23, I Cor. 13:12, I John 3:2 on that topic. Bell says that our heart, character, desires, etc. take time to change. I agree and will cite Phil. 1:6, but the moment Jesus comes back we will be fully changed. Bell says the idea is to start the transformation now, I agree with that point, that's sanctification, but you can't start to be sanctified until you are first justified.
Pg. 52 - cites the surprise of the sheep in Matt. 25 (sheep and goats) on being "let in." I have a feeling this is going to come into play later (and it did). Bell hammers away that the sinners were treated with compassion while the religious were rebuked, while Jesus walked this earth. Yes, very true, but don't think that means you don't actually have to get saved.
Pg. 53 - Bell paints a picture of a single mom in dire circumstances, coming out of an abusive situation, and speculates that she will be in heaven, because she is doing the best she can with what she has--she takes good care of her children, works long hours to provide for them, etc. God doesn't save on pity. This points to salvation by works. She may very well be in heaven, but it won't have anything to do with how hard she worked or how well she took care of her children, but on whether or not she accepted God's gift of grace.
Pg. 57 - heaven is more real than what we experience now--I agree.
Pg. 58 - it transcends time--I agree.
Pg. 59 - mentions 11 dimensions--very interesting!
Pg. 62 - I pretty much agree with Bell's summary and I agree that we will be surprised by who we see in heaven. I think we should step outside of our little parameters for who we think "gets in."
In summary, chapter 2 says heaven could refer to God, the millennium, and the abundant life here and now. I agree that if we are to live the abundant life we need to be totally focused on the things of the Spirit. (Rom. 8:6).

Chapter 3, pg. 64 - "sin, refuse to repent, it's over." This is what Bell says most churches are teaching. This is wrong teaching and if it's what you're hearing, please find a new church, or at least get some quality teaching online. The fact is, our sin is not what sends us to hell and that myth needs busting. You will go to hell by your conscious decision to reject the provision God has made for your sin. No one will be in hell by surprise. "God is loving and kind and full of grace and mercy--unless there isn't confession and repentance, right?" If you don't repent, it does not change the fact that God is loving and gracious. The real question is, "have you accepted His love and grace or rejected it?"
Pg. 69 - "For many in the modern world, the idea of hell is a holdover from primitive, mythic religion that uses fear to control people."
Pg. 71-72 - stories of various people in really bad circumstance to illustrate that we can have hell on earth. Bell says, "I tell these stories because it is absolutely vital to acknowledge that love, grace, and humanity can be rejected." I agree. We are free to choose. Bell says, "When people say they don't believe in hell or sin, I ask, 'Have you sat and talked with a parent of a molested child?'" I would like to ask Bell if he believes that that child molester will be in heaven, just not "enjoying" it.
Pg. 73 - "There are very real consequences of rejecting our God-given goodness and humanity." I don't agree with that wording--it implies we are all good at heart, but Rom. 3:23 says we have all sinned and fall short of God's glory.
Pg. 75 - "Jesus brings a social revolution"--partially true--it won't be fully realized until He sits on His earthly throne. See notes on pg. 45 for exposition.
Pg. 78 - "Often the people most concerned about others going to hell when they die seem less concerned with the hells on earth right now, while the people most concerned with the hells on earth right now seem the least concerned about hell after death." I agree. I don't believe in a social gospel, but preaching the gospel so that people can be free here and now. Again, see my full position on my note for pg. 45.
Pg. 80 - "Jesus taught that God's love doesn't wield a sword." What about Rev. 19:15, when Jesus returns with a sword coming out of His mouth, to fight His enemies? Or do you just take that allegorically?
Pg. 81 - Bell is explaining that the passages about wrath in the Bible were fulfilled at the fall of Jerusalem. Wrong.
Pg. 84 - Sodom & Gomorrah were destroyed, but Bell cites Ez. 16 that says they will be restored. His point is that all the bad, all wrath, all judgment is to reconcile and restore you and if you choose to live in hell you will eventually come around to see that God is the way. Huh? So then, hell is temporary?
Pg. 85 - more examples of wrath as correction, cites Jer. 32 & 5.
Pg. 86 - Bell says God's rejection isn't forever--cites Lam. 3, Hos. 14, Zeph. 3. The only problem with using these passages is that they all specifically refer to Israel's restoration, that is yet future.
Pg. 87 - more on that--Is. 57, Hos. 6, Joel 3, Amos 9, Nahum 2, Zeph. 2, 3, 9, 10, & Micah 7. Again, ALL those are referring to Israel.
Pg. 91 - the goats get sent (Matt. 25) to an aion of kolazo. Bell says aion is an age and kolazo is a term of horticulture--pruning, trimming, so plants can flourish. I'm having a hard time swallowing this one, since the passage says that they are sent to the same place that was prepared for the devil and his angels. Are the devil and his angels being judged and pruned and trimmed, in order to flourish and be reconciled and restored? Well, I looked it up on Blueletterbible.org. Verse 46 of Matthew 25 uses the phrase, "everlasting punishment." The Greek words translated everlasting and punishment are aionios and kolasis, respectively. Aionios means without beginning or end, or never to cease. It is used 42 times as eternal and 25 times as everlasting. It does come from the root aion, which can mean eternity, the worlds, or period of time, an age. Kolasis means correction, punishment, or penalty. It is only used twice, here in Matthew, and in the familiar verse I John 4:18, translated torment. It does come from the root kolazo, which can mean to lop or prune, as in trees or wings; to curb, check, or restrain; to chastise, correct, punishment; and to cause to be punished. It is only used twice and both times is translated as punish. I'm not too sure this word kolazo is meant to prune in a positive sense. Sometimes you have to cut off a branch that has disease and such. This would not be the same kind of pruning that is done so that a tree can bear more fruit. Now I'm not a Greek scholar, but this word prune made me think of John 15:2. It is the word purge in the KJV, but prune in the NKJV. I found it interesting that it is the Greek word kathairo, and it means to cleanse, as in to prune a plant from useless shoots, or a person from guilt. Based on all of my findings, I do not see support for Bell's position on Matt. 25:46, that is is a temporary place of correction.
Pg. 93 - summary of chapter 3--Bell says, "hell is a good word for all the junk that goes on in this life." Hmmm. So he isn't going to answer the question of whether there is a literal hell that some will go to.

Chapter 4, Pg. 99 - Uh, oh! Here comes the "brotherhood of man/fatherhood of God" philosphy. [Adolf Harnack is credited for spreading this idea at the end of the19th century.] Bell says, "all people will come to God." He cites Ps. 65 and Phil. 2, "every knee will bow and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord." Yes, but if you notice, those that are bowing are in three separate locations--some on the earth, some above the earth, and some UNDER the earth.
Pg. 100 - making the case for God's sovereignty, that He is ultimately in control and will get His way, and His way is that all come to the knowledge of Him. That takes away free will.
Pg. 107 - opening up the idea that people get a chance to turn to God after death. Cites Matt. 19, Acts 3, Col. 1 regarding restoring, renewing, reconciling all things. Brings up early church fathers Clement, Origen, Gregory of Hyssa, and Eusebius as holding this view--that doesn't make the view correct. Origen is one that began allegorizing the text and said that God was done with Israel. Augustine followed this line of thinking, as well.
Pg. 108 - "God's love will eventually melt even the hardest of hearts." That is true that some of even the hardest hearts will turn. But I do not agree that this chance is open for all of eternity. God wants to see who will choose Him while there are still other choices (i.e. here on earth). If the choice was extended to those in hell, there is no doubt that everyone would choose God, but that's their only choice at that point. Remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. The rich man did not have the choice extended to him in hell, and then all of a sudden, he was concerned about his brothers. If there was a choice for him, even in hell, then he shouldn't be concerned about his brothers.
Pg. 110 - "This is a wide stream we're swimming in." Again, I say, majority opinion doesn't equal truth.
Pg. 112 - Bell keeps calling the Apostle John a pastor and he says he's writing his congregation by writing the book of Revelation. But John was on Patmos for about 10 years and was very old, and in the beginning of Revelation, we see that Jesus appeared to him and told him to write to seven specific churches. So Revelation is really Jesus writing to those seven churches.
Pg. 115 - the gates of the New Jerusalem are never closed, so Bell speculates that this indicates that those in hell can come back anytime they want. In his defense, Bell says that we can't answer that question. He says that we need to be careful not to treat something in the Bible so literally that it becomes less true. This is a red flag to me--does Bell take the Word of God seriously and literally? Or does Bell look at the Bible more allegorically? Like Origen? This is a very dangerous position.
Pg. 117 - Bell reiterates that if you really, really want isolation and despair, God in His love, lets you have it. I agree.

Chapter 5 - lots of mention of the cross, blood, sacrifice, etc. I was surprised by this.
Pg. 126 - terms like reconciled, justified (from Rom. 3), and victory--he says these terms are from relationships, the courtroom, and battle. I think that someone could actually get saved reading this book.
Pg. 129 - Bell purports that these metaphors were to help the 1st century Christians understand the cross, but those things don't really ring for us today. Huh? We still have relationships, still have courtrooms, and still have battles and wars. He says for us today, we just need to know that Jesus is where life is--I can agree with that.
Pg. 132 - "the writers of the Bible were extremely clever, employing incredibly complex patterns with numbers." Again, what? When you get into the study of all the patterns and numbers and heptadic structure (sevens) of the Bible, you will see how it is humanely impossible to devise and really points to the true authorship of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 6, Pg. 147 - so far he has mentioned the cross, the resurrection and Jesus as divine--this is good.
Pg. 152 - Bell mentions a girl so anesthetized to Jesus from saturation of Christian culture that she doesn't even know Him--she goes to Christian school, goes to youth group, has always belonged to the church--yes, I can see that, but that doesn't mean that all people in that situation don't know Him. You can be saturated and be on fire. Bell says that conversely you can go visit a group of pagans in the far reaches of the world and when they hear they gospel they respond and say, "That's His name? We've been talking about Him for years..." I have a harder time swallowing this one. Yes, I believe God can reach the pagans in the far reaches of the world, whether anyone ever visited them and preached the gospel message to them. But if they are still practicing their paganism, they have not met the real God. The real God sets them free from ritual and religion.
Pg. 154 - Bell says Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, but he also says that He doesn't tell us how, or when, or in what manner people get to God through Him. Huh? "He [Jesus] doesn't even state that those coming to the Father through Him will even know that they are coming exclusively through Him." This is out there on a limb. Aren't there plenty of verses that mention faith in Jesus? [I just looked on Biblegateway.com and found 4 verses with the exact phrase, "faith in Jesus" in the epistles--two in Romans, two in Galatians. There are 6 verses with the exact phrase, "faith in Christ" in the epistles, from Galatians, Philipians, and Colossians.] "Inclusivity--the kind that is open to all religions, the kind that trusts that good people will get in [there's works again], that there is only one mountain, but it has many paths." Here we go, he's laid it all out on the table now.
Pg. 155 - "The door is opened to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Baptists..." Yes! But they must reject their false system of religion and recognize that Christ is THE only way! I do not believe that you can hold to Islam, Buddha, or Hinduism and be a Christian at the same time. What about having "no other gods before Me (the God of Israel)"?
Pg. 158 - Bell almost sounds like he is making Jesus out to be the divine spark of the New Age religion--that He is in everthing and everyone already, and we Christians just happen to call it, "Jesus." Using verses like Col. 1:17. Very thin ice, this.
Pg. 159 - Bell says that people have experiences [I see a lot of focus on the emotional in this book, rather than solid truth], but they may not call it Jesus, because they have a negative association with that name. On the flip side, I know a lot of New Agers have experiences with "Jesus" that are not really Jesus. They encounter a "spirit-guide" that calls himself Jesus. Jesus told us that many would come in His name and not to be deceived (Matt. 24:5). I'm sorry (no, I'm not), but if you come to know the real Jesus you will love to say His name and identify Him for others, in His Word, and you will love to read His Word to learn more and more about Him.
Pg. 160 - "It is our responsibility to be extremely careful about making judgments about people's eternal destinies." I agree, we can never see a person't heart, only God can. Uh, oh! Bell is now using a couple of parables in the wrong way. I will explain after the quote. "This new reality is like yeast (from Matt. 13), it spreads through the dough." The problem is, is that parable is talking about sin being like yeast, and sin will spread like yeast through the church, specifically the sin of legalism, the leaven of the Pharisees. Yeast is always sin in scripture, you can't take this parable any differently. And again Bell cites the parable of the mustard seed that grows into the big tree that is so big all the birds make their nests in the branches. Again, uh, oh, for Bell. He has used another parable wrongly. Using expositional constancy (as before with the yeast), the birds in the beginning of this passage were ministers of Satan--eating the seed, stealing the Word, so they are here, too. A mustard plant, no matter what variety, does not grow as big as a tree. I have planted mustard in my backyard. It grows about 3 or 4 feet tall, but that is all. Jesus is saying that the church will grow bigger than it should and ministers of Satan will nest in it. We see that today, there are false teachers all throughout the church. Paul even said to the Ephesian elders, as he was leaving (in Acts 20) to beware of wolves in the flock. I find it ironic that Bell chose these two parable to illustrate his point, when in actuality they are referring to sin and false teaching. Hmmm.

Chapter 7, Pg. 165 - Bell is now using the story of the Prodigal Son. He shows that there was reconciliation, return, and redemption, with the younger son. Bell said he is now a son again. But again, this brings up the view of the brotherhood of man/fatherhood of God belief that all mankind are God's children. Not so. We are born into God's family by the New Birth (John 3). The story of the Prodigal Son is not one of a sinner getting saved, but rather a Christian that has been living in the flesh, living for themselves, not for God, squandering their inheritance by works of the flesh, and repents. They realize it would be better to be a servant of the Father, than the life they are living, and so come home. But the Father welcomes this fleshly Christian with open arms, showing that they never lost their salvation, they never lost their sonship, and the Father still loves them, despite how they had been living. Now that doesn't mean that it's okay to live that way, remember the son lost all his inheritance.
Pg. 169 - still on the Prodigal Son story--Bell says the older brother chooses hell, which is just his attitude, his lack of peace and joy about the party and the younger brother's return. Bell points out that both sons are still with the father. He is equating the feast with heaven and so says that both brothers are in heaven together, but one enjoys it and one doesn't--it's their choosing. Again, you have to use the story properly--they are both sons, so are both Christians--one chose to live as a carnal Christian, and the other was legalistic and counted himself worthy based on how he lived, but both are saved and so are both going to heaven. This does not mean that everyone will be in heaven.
Pg. 170 - "Hell is our refusal to trust God's re-telling of our story." But this leaves no room for our free will and choice. If God has predetermined that everyone will live in heaven with Him, then what choice do we have? Bell says the choice is whether we enjoy it or not. Well, since we will not have to deal with the devil, our flesh, or the world's pressures and temptations in heaven, I don't see how we could possibly have a bad attitude.
Pg. 174 - Bell says we've been sold a gospel that says God is loving one moment, vicious the next. But God is not the one doing the torment the way Bell paints it out to be. If you choose to go to hell, you certainly may and God, in His love, will not stop you.
Pg. 175 - Bell says the church can't keep spreading this image of a God that will punish people for all eternity, for their sins. He calls it an unacceptable, awful reality that the church is purporting.
Pg. 178 - We cannot reduce the good news to a ticket to heaven. I agree. But to say that God's invitation is a call to enjoy what He has already predetermined that you will have is a rejection of the basic doctrinal truth that at the moment of salvation you become a new creature (II Cor. 5:17), and you are now "in Christ" and He in "in you." See Eph. 1:1 and Eph. 3:17.
Pg. 180 - "People have picked up the toxic notion that God is a slave driver." Yes, they have, but this, "everyone gets into heaven, but not everyone will enjoy it," message is not the answer. That is a false teaching trying to address another false teaching. Legalism is wrong, God is not a slave driver, Jesus said so 2,000 years ago. What we really need is a revival in the church of people reading the Bible for themselves, getting a revelation of who God really is--loving, gracious, merciful, compassionate, etc., FOR themselves (rather than relying on regurgitated food from their pastor, for all their substinence), and we would really start impacting our world! The problem with the whole book is he's attacking a lie with a lie, rather than correcting a falsehood with a truth.
Pg. 182 - "We shape our God and then our God shapes us." What?!? I agree that a distored understanding of who God is will bring fear, worry, depression, lack of peace, bitterness, etc., but the answer is to find out what the Word says about who God is.
Pg. 187 - "it's not our goodness, that separates us from God, it's our thinking that our works are eaning us things from God." Still talking about the Prodigal Son story, specifically the older brother. "Your deepest, darkest sins and your shameful secrets are simply irrelevant when it comes to the counterintuitive, ecstatic announcement of the gospel." Yes, your sins shouldn't keep you from God, He's already paid the price. "So are your goodness, your rightness, your church attendance, and all of the wise, moral, mature decisions you have made and actions you have taken." Again, yes, your works don't get you anything from God. But these two statements apply to people that will accept God's gift of salvation, they don't mean that everyone is automatically saved.
Pg. 188 - "Our trusting, our change of heart, our believing...doesn't make it happen [God grace and love and forgiveness]." True, but you don't experience it unless you receive and open the gift. Again, I refer you to Eph. 2:8--we are saved BY grace, THROUGH faith.

Chapter 8 - In conclusion, love wins, and Bell invites you to experience that love. I agree, love wins. It is God's love that will allow you to go to hell (yes, a literal place of torment), if that is your deepest heart's desire. No one will go to hell for their sin.

Dispensations in Parenting

In my last post on dispensations I promised a follow-up on how this can apply to parenting.  So you will want to be familiar with that list in order to understand this article.  Click the link to read that.  I have inserted numbers here and there to indicate which dispensation I am referencing.


When children are born, they are innocent (1); they do not have a knowledge of good and evil. At some point they do learn of good and evil, right and wrong. This is a different time for every child. Sometimes you can see the 18-month old that knows not to touch the plant, by the look in their eye—you know that look. This is not to be confused with the "age of accountability", I believe that comes at an older age.  That is the age when a child realizes their sinfulness and their need for a Savior.  With the really young child we are talking about the conscience stage (2). At the point we begin to see that the child has a knowledge of right and wrong, we institute rules of the house. This is the government stage (3), family government. We institute consequences to help them choose right, because if left to their own devices, they will inevitably choose wrong.

As our children grow, we should be teaching our children about God’s promises (4)—His blessings, His favor, His grace, His character. We should be teaching our children about God’s principles, His laws (5) and why they were given, His standards and how we cannot measure up, His symbolism showing His plan for a Savior. Don’t present God’s law just as a back-up for your rules. This is manipulation. We should be teaching our children about God’s Spirit (6) and how He indwells us and enables us to meet His standards; how He works in us our whole lives to conform us to the image of Christ. And finally we should be teaching our children about the Kingdom of God (7), how He is returning to rule on the earth, how He is going to judge our works and reward us, and how we can rule and reign with Him. This gives them hope--hope that one day all will be made right in the world, good will triumph over evil.

If we leave any of these categories out, we fall out of balance. If we decide to use family government and God’s law, but leave out the aspects of God’s Spirit enabling us and His promises of blessing that He has for us (separate from our works), this is called legalism. Legalistic families produce children that are full of resentment, rebellion, self-righteousness, and possibly even end up rejecting the faith.

Conversely, some families want to disregard the government (3) and law (5) categories because they know that God loves them unconditionally and makes His grace abound toward us. They know that He does not pour out wrath and punishment on us (He already did that with Christ and He was our substitute). So the tendency is to be lenient with our children. God is merciful with us, so shouldn’t we be merciful with our children? We are no longer under the law, so why are we putting our children under it?  The tendency is not to discipline but just to try to convince kids through reasoning that they should behanve.  But if you leave out government and law, you will produce children with no godly character, and their lives will suffer because of it.

Too many of us just stop at the stage of government. We really just want to keep control of our children. But who are our children anyway? Why did God give them to us?

In this area as well as all others we need to take in the whole counsel of God. I believe that looking at God’s plan for man, these 7 dispensations, will help us parent more completely. The goal should be to teach our children that God loves them unconditionally, even though they are sinners. They need Christ, not only to save them, but to empower them to live their lives the way God planned, to be conformed to the image of Christ, developing godly character. They will never be perfect, but they can press on, as Paul put it. The earlier they learn these principles, the more peace they will have in their lives—with their siblings, with you, with teachers, coaches, with friends, eventually co-workers, a spouse, and their own children. And most importantly, we need to teach them how to know God and hear His voice. If they won’t receive correction from us, how will they receive correction from God’s Word as adults?

Please don’t think I have mastered this. I am learning, too. If you want to learn more, I highly recommend reading Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp, and Age of Opportunity by Paul David Tripp.

Dispensations

I'm studying Ephesians right now and have come to verse 10.  In this verse we see the word dispensation.  What is a dispensation?  It is the Greek word is oikonomia.  It means the management of household affairs, or administration.  It's simply the rule of the house, the way things operate for this time.  It is used 4 times as dispensation (I Cor. 9:17, Eph. 1:10, 3:2, & Col. 1:25) and 3 times as stewardship (Luke 16:2-4).  Some translations will use the word stewardship rather than dispensation.  I use the NKJV, which is based on the Textus Receptus.  In Eph. 3:9 there appears a word for fellowship--koinonia.  But some translations are based on the Alexandrian text, which uses the word oikonomia in that verse instead  Just something to be aware of.  The NKJV reads, "fellowship of the mystery", the ESV reads, "plan of the mystery", and NASB reads, "dispensation of the mystery."

 

Heb. 1:1 – God works in different ways in different times. This does not mean that God tried one thing and it didn’t work so He tried something else. The reason for each of these periods is to lead man to the cross, until the final period where Christ will reign forever.

 

These dispensations help us understand the overall plan of scripture. They help us have a big picture perspective.  Understanding these dispensations particularly helps us understand how we are no longer under the law.

 

So, what are the different dispensations?  There are seven, here is a list.  I interpret them slightly differently than some.  You may ask, "who cares?"  Does this information really do us any good in our day-to-day life?  For one, I will use them to explain the Sheep and the Goats post.  And I see a very practical aspect applied to our parenting.  I will post about that soon.

 

1. Innocence (Gen. 1:28) – from creation to the fall. How long did it last? We don’t really know, but we do know it ended when they sinned. They were no longer innocent at that point.

 

2. Conscience/Moral Responsibility (Gen. 3:7) – from the fall onward. You now know good and evil, I will leave you to your conscience to choose between those. But man tends toward evil, so we get up to Gen. 6:5 and God says that ALL the purposes of man were evil continually.

 

3. Government (Gen. 8:15) – from the flood onward. After the flood there were consequences for evil. Man was still accountable to his conscience to choose between good and evil, but God added an incentive. He says that anyone that takes a human life will have his taken away. We see the value God is placing on human life here. If you can’t govern yourself, someone else will have to. See also Rom. 13.

 

4. Promise (Gen. 12:1) – from the call of Abram onward. This promise was not based on anything Abraham had done; it was unconditional. All Abraham had to do was believe. This promise is still available to us by faith, as well. So this dispensation, too, has not gone away. Gen. 12 & Gal. 3, 4. God is now teaching humans to trust in Him.

 

5. Law (Ex. 19:1) – from Mt. Sinai until Jesus (or specifically John the Baptist—Luke 16:16). Promise does not end and the Law did not bring justification. It brought a picture of the Savior. It brought many, many types and shadows to point us to the cross. You can study everything in the law, from the Sabbath, to the Feasts, to the elements of the Tabernacle, to the Dietary Laws, to the specific instructions to the priests on how to administer offerings, to the laws for declaring leprosy cleansed, and you will see Christ through and through. Beyond all the symbolism, the law was meant to frustrate man and show him he could never make it on his own, even with conscience and human government.

 

6. Church (Acts 2:1) – from Pentecost until the rapture. This is sometimes called the Age of Grace (I do not agree with this title) or the Dispensation of Faith (again, I don’t think this is entirely accurate), or the Dispensation of the Spirit. This is the mystery Paul is talking about, the secret that was hidden, not revealed in the OT, that Gentiles and Jews would be part of the same Body, and that the Spirit would indwell us. These were mind-blowing truths. This is one of the reasons Paul prayed for revelation for the people he was writing to. We need to pray this pray, too, that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes to these profound truths.

 

· Do we still have moral responsibility (#2)? Yes, but now we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, to give us the power to choose right and wrong, and our human spirits have been recreated in the image of Christ—it wants to follow after Him.


· Do we still have human government (#3)? Yes, we do, but if we walk according to the Spirit, we don’t have to be afraid of the government. If they put us to death for righteousness sake, the Bible says we’re supposed to be happy.


· What about the law? Does it still stand? I Tim. 1:8-10 says that the law is not for the righteous—we have been made the righteousness of Christ—but for the lawless, the ungodly, the sinners. The law still stands to point people to Christ, to show them their need. The law still stands as a standard in our world, that if people would follow it, our world would be a better place to live in. The law does not justify us, but it sets the standard and grace gives us the power to live it.

 

7. Kingdom (Rev. 20:4) – from Armageddon onward. The visible rule of the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. We can see II Sam. 7:12-16, Is. 9:6-7, Luke 1:31-33, Rev. 3:21, and Matt. 25:31. He came once to die, the second to reign.

  

Now, the thread that is common throughout all these dispensations is grace. That is why I do not call the Church Age the Age of Grace. Every single age has been the age of grace. It was God’s grace that blocked Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life. He did not want them to live forever in their fallen state. It was grace that God had on Cain when He marked him and sent him away. It was grace that saved Noah and his family. Grace called Abram out of Ur. Grace redeemed Israel from their bondage to the Egyptians. Grace came and dwelt among us. Grace will rule on a literal throne forever and ever. The other side of this coin is faith. You can read about people of faith throughout all the past in Hebrews 11. Just like them, we are saved by grace, through faith, in whatever age we live.

The Sheep and the Goats

To finish my series on Matthew 25 I have to include the Sheep and the Goats. At first I would have called this the parable of the Sheep and Goats, but I don't know if this qualifies as a parable. It does use some symbolism, though. To read about the first parable in this chapter click here. To read about the second parable click here and here, for part two.

I'm trying to keep my tag list as clutter-free as I can and include mostly books of the Bible, to be more of a cross-reference system. But if I were tagging traditionally, I would tag this blog with words like law, grace, wrath, works, punishment, condemnation, justification, sanctification, heaven, and hell. So think of those things as you read through this.  After you read this, I have a few questions for you.  I will publish a Part 2 to this post to address those questions.

Matthew 25:31-46

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?  When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?  Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’  And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’  Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’  And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Have you ever wondered about this story in the Bible?  Have you ever felt condemned reading it?  Does it make you squirm?  What does it tell us about law and grace?  What about unconditional love?  What about verses like Romans 8:1, I Thessalonians 1:10, I Thessalonians 5:9, II Timothy 1:9, Titus 3:4-6, or Ephesians 2:8-9?  Does this story illustrate verses like Revelation 22:12?
I would love to hear your thoughts and I will post a follow-up soon.  Thanks!

What is Grace?

I listened to a fabulous message the other day by John Bevere. You can listen to it, too, here.

He included a great analogy that has really stuck with me.

Imagine a tribe that lives in the bush, in Africa. They live far from all amenities. They have to travel far for water. They have to travel really, really far for medical supplies. They have to go out and hunt their food and then carry the heavy load back to the village. They have no connection to the outside world--no radios, no TV, no Internet. They have no A/C in their huts. And on and on and on.

We decide to grace them, to show them favor, to give them a great gift. We buy them a Land Rover. We bring it over and explain many of its benefits. We show them the A/C, heater, DVD player, Satellite Radio--really awesome things, that will benefit their lives. They are in awe and ask how they can pay for this. No, no, no, this is a FREE gift. We are giving it to them and expect no payment.

We leave and then come back to visit in 10 years. We find that the Land Rover is still sitting in the same spot! We find the odometer reads 0 miles! Why haven't they used it? Why haven't they taken advantage of the benefit of using it for transporting water, medical supplies, food, and more? Why haven't they used it to make their lives better?

Because we FAILED to explain to them the PRIMARY function of the Land Rover--transportation! We explained other good benefits, but not the primary benefit. They wrote songs about how great this gift was, they wrote books about it being a free gift that they didn't earn, they preached sermons about how it covered them when they climbed in to get out of the rain. But they WASTED our gift!

Is Jesus going to come back and see that we have wasted His gift of grace? We write songs about how amazing His grace is--and it is. We write books about how it's a free gift that we could never possibly earn--and it is. We preach sermons about how it covers all our sin--and it does. BUT, we are not teaching people the primary purpose and that is...

Empowerment!

Grace empowers us to overcome sin, overcome our weaknesses, overcome the world, overcome the devil, to be all that God has planned for us to be!

There is much more to the message and I encourage you to listen to it. The different references that were used were Eph. 3:9-10 Msg, Rom. 5:18 Msg, Gen. 1:27 Msg, II Cor. 12:9 TEV & NLT, II Pet. 1:2-3, John 1:16, I John 4:17, I John 2:6 NLT, II Cor. 7:1 TEV, Heb. 12:14, Heb. 12:28, II Cor. 6:1 TEV, John 20:21, Acts 4:33, Acts 6:8 NLT, Luke 2:40, John 14:12, Rom. 5:17 TEV, Dan. 6:3 NASB, Dan. 1:20. Look all of these up and see what the Holy Spirit wants to teach you. All unmarked references are NKJV.

Parable of the Talents pt. 2

This is part two of two posts on the Parable of the Talents. You can read the first part here.

I asked some questions last time, and here I will lay out what I believe the answers are. But remember, do your own study, come to your own conclusions.

Who is the lord? God.

Who are the servants? Christians. Not all believe this. I have heard it preached that the foolish servant was not a believer. I don't agree because in verse 14 you see the lord called his own servants. This reminds me of Romans 8:28. These are the called. These are the lord's servants, the unsaved are not serving God. And God is not lord of the unsaved.

What is a talent? A talent was a measure of weight used back in Bible times. This was a weight of gold or silver given to these servants. This is why I have always heard this passage taught in the context of financial stewardship, but I believe this has a broader application. I believe that the word talent means just that--a talent or a gift. There are many, many passages that refer to gifts God has given us. Some that come to my mind are Romans 12:6, I Corinthians 7:7, I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 3:7, Ephesians 6:7-8, I Timothy 4:14, II Timothy 1:6, I Peter 4:10, Proverbs 18:16. God has given you a gift, or gifts. What have you done with them?

What does this parable mean? This parable illustrates the Bema Seat of Christ. The Bema Seat in Roman times was the seat of judgment. Jesus was brought before the Bema Seat to see Pilate (Matthew 27 & John 19), and Paul was brought before the Bema Seat to see Gallio, in Achaia, and Festus, in Caesarea. We will all stand before the Judgment (Bema) Seat of Christ (Romans 14:10 & II Corinthians 5:10). I believe this is what I Corinthians 3:9-15 is referring to. Our works will be judged, but our spirit's will not. That was done when Christ hung on the cross. All sin was judged when He took the penalty. This is about rewards.


What is the outer darkness? I have always heard this referred to as hell. Some will teach that the servant that buried the talent wasn't really saved and is sent to hell. Others will teach that all were saved, but the servant that buried his talent lost his salvation, and thus was sent to hell. But I present a third option to you.

Outer darkness in Greek is exoteros skotos and it means simply the darkness outside. Charles Stanley, Kenneth Wuest, Erwin Lutzer, Dr. Spiros Zodhiates, and Warren Wiersbe all agree this is not hell. Thayer's Greek/English Lexicon says that the outer darkness is "the darkness outside the limits of the lighted palace." Kenneth Wuest in his Expanded Translation of the Greek New Testament said, "The outer darkness is the darkness that is outside of the King's banqueting house." That is very interesting to me, in light of what I presented about the Parable of the Virgins and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. You can read about that in this post.

What does weeping and gnashing of teeth mean? This phrase has always sounded so strange to me. Obviously the weeping part is simple--it is weeping. And gnashing of teeth means profound regret.

So, is the outer darkness a place apart from God's light and joy, where we will weep and feel profound regret? IF...we do not steward the gifts and talents that God has given us? Remember that Revelation 21:4 says that God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. Why are they crying?

Whatever it is, it is not a place of punishment. Remember Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus." Are you in Christ? If so, you have nothing to fear. All sin was judged at the cross. If you have accepted the work that Christ did on your behalf, God has forgiven you of your sin, and therefore you cannot be punished.

Parable of the Talents

This parable follows the Parable of the Virgins, that my last post focused on. I am splitting this post up into two parts, so stay tuned. A few questions to think about--"What does this parable mean? Who is the lord? Who are the servants? What is a talent? What is this outer darkness? What does weeping and gnashing of teeth mean?"

Matthew 25:14-30

14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.

16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.

19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ 26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

The Wise and Foolish Virgins

Matthew 25:1-13

¹ “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. ³ Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. ⁵ But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
⁶ “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ ⁷ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
¹¹ “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ ¹² But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
¹³ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

I have been pondering this topic of the race for many months now and I see how many things in the Bible tie into it. If you want to read my post on The Race, click the link. Paul compared our Christian life to a race. He said he was pressing on to win the race and receive the prize. Later in his life, he said he had fought the good fight, he had finished the race, and he knew the prize was awaiting him. He told us in Hebrews 12 how to run that race, how not to get tripped up.

This is important because I know that a lot of Christians don't view their lives as a race. Rather they view Christianity as a ticket to heaven, a "Get Out of Jail Free" card, and that is the extent of their relationship with God. They hear about God's saving grace and sit back and don't ever find out anything else about Him and His plan. They sit around and don't ever do anything, telling themselves and others that they aren't saved by works (which is true). They don't ever take the time to enter into relationship with God, they don't even know him. They are like a bride that had a wedding, but doesn't want to live with the groom.

I heard something recently that was great -

"Between conversion and resurrection is discipleship."

Salvation is not the end, it is the beginning. How is your race going? Are you a disciple or a convert? Are you moving forward or regressing? I don't believe you can remain stationary in this race.

That is why I want to bring up this parable of the virgins. This story tells us of the consequences of running the race well, or not running well.

The general belief is that the wise virgins are Christians, but the foolish are not. I don't agree. Another view is that they are all Christians, but the wise virgins are the ones that get raptured, the foolish ones do not. Again, I don't agree. There are just too many things in the Bible that indicate that the WHOLE church is raptured. And that is a topic for another post.

I believe that all 10 are Christians. First, because they are virgins, they are pure. When we get saved, we are made new, pure, clean. We are made the righteousness of Christ (II Corinthians 5:21). We didn't deserve or earn our salvation (Ephesians 2:8).

Next, notice that all 10 virgins have oil in their lamps. Oil in the Bible represents the Holy Spirit. They would not have the Holy Spirit if they were not saved. Now most who read this (and I did before, too) assume that the foolish virgins didn't have any oil (because of verse 3), but notice in verse 4 that the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. The vessel was apparently a separate container, so that they could keep their lamp full. And this is confirmed in verse 8 when the foolish say their lamps are going out. This tells me they did have oil at one time, but no reserves. Their lamps were lit, but they were going out. So they all started out with oil. They are all Christians that started out filled with the Holy Spirit.

Why did 5 of them get into the wedding and 5 did not? And what is the wedding? Revelation 19 tells of the marriage supper of the Lamb and the wife that has made herself ready. Verse 9 says, "Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!" I take this to mean there is really a literal wedding and marriage feast. And so only those that have made themselves ready get to enter. How do we make ourselves ready?

By keeping our lamps full of oil. This is walking in the Spirit (Romans 8:6, Galatians 5:16-26). Obeying the voice of the Spirit. Yielding in everything to the Spirit. Less of me, more of Him. This is a day-by-day, moment-by-moment decision. We don't just decide one day and then every day after that we are set. Again, it's not about starting, it's about finishing. There are many, many examples in the Bible of people that didn't finish well--Samson, Gideon, King Saul, Solomon, to name a few. These are to show us how NOT to live. (Romans 15:4)

Revelation 19:8 tells us that the bride is dressed in fine linen, clean and bright, and that linen is the righteous acts of the saints. So, you can't just sit still, you have to act! That is the only way you move forward in this race.

But...

You cannot just make up your own acts. This is what got Abraham in trouble. He had a son of his own will, Ishmael. That was not God's plan. Romans 14:23--whatever is not from faith is sin. What is faith? Faith is responding to God's grace. Is your action a response to God's grace, or is it an action to gain something from God, to get God to move? This is how you determine if it is of the flesh or of the Spirit. If it's in response, it's of the Spirit. If it is to gain, to make God pity you and do something for you, it is of the flesh. These works of the flesh will be burned up (I Corinthians 3:5-17). To obey is better than sacrifice (I Samuel. 15:22). You must be filling up with God's Word in order to know what His Spirit is asking of you. Remember my post on fruit? It fits perfectly with this post, click here to read.

Now, this does not mean that some of us attain perfection. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 3:12, "I have not achieved perfection." This is THE apostle Paul talking here. He wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, but he said he had not achieved perfection?!? None of us ever will. But notice his next statement, "I press on to possess that perfection." None of us will be complete and perfect until Christ comes back (Philippians 1:6). But we press on. This includes repenting when we fail (I John 1:9).

This is where it is helpful to know the difference between spirit, soul, and body. Our spirits are complete, they are made perfect. It is our soul that takes a lifetime to be regenerated, transformed, and sanctified. Our bodies on the other hand will be made perfect, in an instant, when Christ returns.

So those that sit around and say you're not saved by works, you are right. But that is justification and that is your ticket to heaven. However, your sanctification takes an effort on your part. It is the Holy Spirit that does the work, but you have to yield to it. This seems to determine whether you get in to that wedding feast or not.

Now is your chance. It's never too late. You can start moving forward in this race. You can fill up with oil. You can be ready for when the bridegroom comes!

So then, is this wedding one of the prizes that Paul referred to? Could it be one of the rewards? I don't know. This brings up an interesting question that may rattle you a bit. If you are like me, you have been taught your whole life that if you are a Christian you are part of the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ. But Revelation 19 and this Parable of the Virgins seems to indicate otherwise. But don't listen to me, dig in and be like a Berean--search the scriptures daily to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11).

A Lesson in Agriculture

I gave my kids a lesson in agriculture this morning. I thought I would share it with you.

Do you want fruit? You will first need some seed.


Plant the seed into good soil.

Then water it.
Your plant will also need a good source of light.
Finally, you need time. Lots of it. Your plant will not grow overnight and will not bear fruit overnight. The amount of time needed depends on what you planted, say tomatoes, melons, or apples, for example. Tomatoes can bear fruit in 90 days, melons take at least 100, and apples can take a few years. But your hard work and patience has paid off and you will reap the rewards--your fruit!
Sound simple? What happens if you leave one of those ingredients out of the formula? You will not get fruit. Simple enough. If you don't plant a seed, you don't get fruit. If you don't have good soil, you will not get fruit. If you don't water, you will not get fruit. If you plant a seed in fantastic soil and water it everyday, but leave it in an unlit closet--you won't get fruit! If you do all the right things, yet don't give the plant enough time, you won't get to enjoy the fruit!

Let's put this into a spiritual context. What is fruit? Fruit is our works, our obedience, our good choices. You want to bear fruit spiritually?

First you will need to plant a seed--God's Word. (Luke 8:11)
Plant it into good soil--your heart. (Luke 8:11-15) We could go on a tangent here about the condition of the heart being right, but I will save that for another time.

Water it regularly--water is God's Word and the Holy Spirit. (Hint--once a week isn't enough!) (Ephesians 5:26 & John 7:38-39)
Expose it to a good source of light--that is also God's Word and the Holy Spirit. John 8:12 speaks of Jesus as the light, but John 1:1 tells us Jesus is the Word. Psalm 119:105 tells us the Word is light. The oil in the Parable of the Virgins (Matthew 25) is a picture of the Holy Spirit, the source of light in our life. John 14:26 tells us that the Holy Spirt will teach us all things. Afterall, it only makes sense that the author of the Scriptures would be the One to explain them. (II Timothy 3:16)Finally, you need time--that is patience. (Luke 8:15) Spiritual fruit doesn't come overnight, it comes in its season (Psalm 1:3). Never give up, no matter how long it takes.

Alas--fruit! There is a lot of emphasis on fruit and rightly so! But we HAVE to know HOW to get that fruit. We can't go to the spiritual store and buy the fruit. We can't take anyone else's fruit. We can't just make up our own fruit (not sure how one would do that, but I do see people make up their own works that were not directed by God--remember Abraham and Hagar!). Oh, and that fruit--you do want it, because Jesus said in John 15 that every branch that does not bear fruit will be taken away! But notice that He tells us just a few verses down (vs. 5) that we can do nothing without Him. We must never forget that--it is through His power!

I hope you see a pattern here--want fruit? You need the Word, planted in your heart, sprinkled with more Word, illuminated with more Word, and patience. Word, Word, Word.

I tried to keep this as simple as I could, since it was for my kids. I know there are more aspects to the parable of the sower. I went over this and then asked them, "okay, how do you make right choices (this is the fruit)?" The first response was, "make good choices." I said, "that's the fruit. How do you get the fruit?" The answer was, "prayer?" People, it takes repetition. So, we went over this list again. Word, Word, Word. Yes, prayer is a part. You can ask God to reveal things to you, to give you wisdom, and He will through His Holy Spirit, but it will be in proportion to how much you feed on His Word. So, I asked them again, this time they got it. They said, "plant a seed in good ground, water it, give it light, and be patient." Can we adults get this, too? It may take a few times of going over it, even for us. I sincerely hope you do get this as it is vital!

Why Did God Save You?

Why did God save you? Or rather, what did He save you for? Have you ever thought about it? There are general answers and specific answers, and this is beyond the basic answer of, "God is love, God saved me because He loved me."

Let's think about this a different way.

Why did you marry your husband? Why did he marry you? Was it so you could keep his house clean? Was it so that he could keep your car running right? Or move heavy objects around the house? How about opening those tough jars? Why did you have kids? Was it so there would be extra hands to help around the house? NO.

Relationship is primary. We married our spouses because we enjoyed spending time with them. We had kids to have more people in our family, to spend time with.

Marriage is the picture of our relationship with God, the church is called the Bride of Christ. See Ephesians 5. God wanted a family, that is why He saved you. See Galatians 4. He wants to spend time with you. He knows all about you, He wants you to know all about Him.

Let's flip this around--what if I never have time for my husband or kids because I’m too busy serving them. I'm doing the laundry, the dishes, the cooking, but never stop to spend any time with them. There’s not much relationship, is there? Many in the church are doing just that. They are in up to their eyeballs with service, but never make time for relationship with God. God wants Marys and Marthas, but Mary comes first. Read about Mary & Martha in Luke 10.

God wants to be your all in all. He wants to be the most important thing in your life. He will not take second place.

So, how do we spend time developing that relationship? Will it grow with a once a week meeting? (i.e. church) How would your marriage do, if you sat down to spend time together just once a week? How well would you know your children, and they get to know you, if you only saw them once a week?

Spend time with God in conversation. That can be prayer, He talks back through His Word and sometimes a still small voice. That voice needs confirming, most often through His Word, sometimes through experiences. I have a friend that wanted to bless a practical stranger, at the gym where she works out. She asked God to show her what flavor of ice cream to buy this girl, so that she would know God's love. She distinctly heard the word strawberry. She would never have thought of that on her own, my friend is a big-time chocolate lover. She bought the ice cream and sure enough, strawberry was this girl's favorite flavor. This opened the door for my friend to tell this girl how much God loves her, He loves even the little things about us, He cares about what flavor ice cream we like. This is an example of hearing from God that could not be confirmed directly in His Word, but was confirmed in a sure way.

Now on the topic of prayer--what is it? Again, back to the easily understood picture of the family. Do you get together to spend quality time with your husband and then run down a list of things you want from him? Things you want him to do? Does he take you out on a date night and then proceed to tell you he has a big meeting in the morning and needs his shirt ironed, and lunch packed? Or do you sit and complain to him of your miseries? "I’m not paid enough, I can’t ever catch up on the laundry, the kids are wearing me out!" Do you sit down with your kids and go through a list of what is to be expected of them? NO! You spend time with your spouse and kids getting to know them, talking about your dreams, ambitions, goals, sharing fun experiences together. There are times for requests, but this isn’t our primary communication! It should be the same with God. We spend time in His Word, getting to know Him. Not out of our sense of obligation to Him, not to be worthy, but to be in relationship. Not to complain, not to run down our list of wants, but to get to know Him more. And the more we know, the more we trust.

What other ways can we communicate with God? Through worship. We were created for His pleasure. Rev. 4:11 KJV Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. This is not a forte of mine, I am not a gushy person. When I want to worship, I open the Psalms. I do sometimes listen to worship music, but I am very, very picky that the lyrics be scriptural—and a lot aren’t.

Study of His Word The Bible is God's Word, it is God speaking to us. You want God to talk to you more? Read more. He's given us 66 books that reveal Himself to us. All we have to do is open it up and we can hear from Him anytime. The Jews believe that study is the highest form of worship. Us Westerners think of learning and study as a chore, and we think it ends when we finish school. In the Jewish Talmud, the term education was synonymous with "heavenly work." Yes, it is work. You have to work at your marriage. You have to work at being a good parent. If we don't put in any effort, then we don't really love.

Action We cannot simply think in our hearts that we love God and we cannot simply say with out mouths that we love God. There must be some proof. It costs us nothing to say it. Notice Revelation 2:5 says to get back to the first work. Relationship is work. Our marriage’s won’t work if we just tell our spouse’s we love them, but never show them. Our kid’s will not feel our love if it is never backed up with action.

God proved His love to us, by His action. We prove our love to Him, by our action.

And this is where the motives of our heart are very important. Are we sitting down to pray and read our Bibles to check religion off of our “To Do” list? Are we trying to earn God’s favor? We must have pure hearts when we come before Him, for He knows our thoughts afterall. See Hebrews 4:12 and John 4:24.

What about service? Aren't we supposed to be doing a job for the Lord? I'm glad you asked. The answer is yes, but it must be in proper priority, and with the proper motivation of heart. If all God wanted was servants, He didn't need to create mankind, He could have stopped with the angels. Remember the story of Mary and Martha from Luke 10. We are to be Marys first (sitting at the feet of Jesus, learning and worshipping), then Marthas (serving). Again, I bring up the comparison of the family. Husbands, wives, and children all have duties in the home, but we discussed previously how if service was all they did, the relationships in the family would break down. Service is a form of worship, but if we don’t have these other things in place—prayer and study time, service doesn’t mean anything. I Samuel 15:22 – to obey is better than sacrifice. We cannot just make up things to do that are in service to God. We must be doing things out of obedience. Romans 14:23b—whatever is not from faith is sin. So, if God didn’t tell us to do it, it is not from faith, it is not out of obedience, EVEN if it is a good thing, then it is sin. Did we hear God tell us to do such and such? Are we sure that is God’s will for us? How do we know? We only hear from God if we are spending time with Him, regularly. We can sacrifice all day long, all year long, all our lives, but when we stand before the Lord, He says, “I never asked you to do any of those things.” See I Corinthians 3—those works will be burned up in the fire. See also the Parable of the Virgins in Matthew 25. The virgins (Christians) that didn’t keep their lamps continually full of oil (the Holy Spirit) did not get to go in to the wedding (see Revelation 19:7-9). Revelation 19:8 tells us that the wedding garment is the righteous acts of the saints, but are these acts we just come up with on our own? I don’t believe so. Back to I Samuel 15:22—obedience is supreme, how are we to obey if we never take the time to listen to what God is telling us? Therefore time for prayer and study is key.

Revelation 2:1-7

“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’

Let's get back to our first love. Let's repent and do the first works.