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ryansgot
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Name: Ryan
Birthday: 3/11/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: Guitar, piano, music theory, and listening to music
Expertise: The more I learn the more I learn I'm not an expert at anything.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message me
AIM:  ryansgot
Member Since:
10/27/2004
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| I believe that God destines some intentions, plans, and ministries for failure. And try as I may, there is nothing I can do to change it. It is frustrating, then angering, and then depressing. But when I find myself unsubmissive to His will, fighting against it, there are no other possible feelings--for I am fighting against God. Until I learn to accept that God has a plan for me beyond my perception of results and be submissive, I will continue in this cycle.
So what must change is my measure of success. It is possible that what I see as a remarkable failure has actually been a great success. I must strive to be obedient to Him with the knowledge that my interpretation of success may not be His own. Obedience, rather than results, must be my motivation.
Read Jeremiah. | | |
| Here in College Station there is road construction going on all the time. One family here lives on a road that was under construction and in the process a hole had to be dug just outside their house. This wasn't just any hole. It was about 8 ft. deep and 3 ft. wide.
The mother and father in this household were reasonably concerned about this hole because they had a small boy who liked to play outside. The boy's father said, "Son, I don't want you to go near that hole when you're outside playing." Naturally, the boy ended up in the hole because little boys never listen.
So he screamed, "Daddy! Daddy! I've disobeyed you and fallen into this hole. I'm sorry--come and save me!" And the father, hearing this, was at the edge of the hole before the boy finished screaming, and he said to the boy, "That's okay son. I forgive you." Then he proceeded to go about his business, leaving his son in the hole.
We all would describe this man as a terrible father--irresponsible--unloving. The above was a fictional story, but sadly, so many people really desire God to be that sort of father. So many desire a God who will forgive their disobedience but fail to deliver them from the sin into which they have fallen. This should not be.
Thankfully God is not like that irresponsible and unloving father. He is a true father--perfect in love and forgiveness, who when we cry out to Him, "Daddy! Daddy! I've disobeyed you and fallen into this sin. I'm sorry--come and save me!" He will not only forgive us but deliver us from the power our sin had over us so we can press on to maturity in Christ.
If you're struggling, remember that "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10) So the beginning of our path to maturity is to have a proper reverence for who He is. We can pray this over ourselves asking God to give us this proper fear.
Does it sadden you when you sin? Remember that "blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4) So if we do happen to sin, we should really be mournful over it. If you are not, ask God to help you to be mournful over it.
The design of salvation was not to simply forgive and justify, but also to empower, sanctify, and glorify. Chew on that for a while. I know I will. | | |
| It may help to read 1 Samuel 3-7:1 before reading this post.
There is a lesson that I still need to learn. What is frightening is that have had plenty of chances to learn it, but when I look at my behavior I know that I have failed. With the information I know I am responsible for it--how will I escape if I never get it right?
The lesson is this:
God did not send the Holy Spirit of His Son so that I could have the power to make myself happy. My own selfish ends will never be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit and any striving I do without the Holy Spirit is against the will of God!
I try to use the culturally acceptable excuses (in Southern Baptist Christian culture) to accomplish my own ends and ideals. I masquerade (albeit unintentionally--but sin is not a matter of intent) as some sort of saint doing everything for Jesus while my life does not reflect my words of devotion to Him in song. How can God be satisfied with me if I treat Him this way? God isn't going to be the means to anybody's end--not mine, not Joel Osteen's, not Chris Osborne's. Why do we fall to the temptation to use God as if He was just a magic formula we could control and manipulate on our own? This is not a proper view of God, and it's a view that caused thousands of Israelites to die.
In 1 Samuel 4 the Israelites took the ark of the covenant of God along with the priests Hophni and Phineas, two incredibly wicked men--the sons of Eli, into war against the Philistines. What amazes me is the account of the reaction of the Philistines:
And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, "What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?" And when they learned that the ark of the LORD had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid, for they said, "A god has come into the camp." And they said, "Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight."
The Philistines had a greater respect for God than the Israelites! You didn't hear any Israelites saying, "Woe to us because we're trying to use our God for our own purpose!" did you? In fact, they acted as if they already won the war (after a defeat in the last battle) when the ark came there. This brings to mind the idea that in war many nations feel like God is on their side. God is only on your side if you are on His--and if you are on His side then you too will "have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11).
It is very interesting to consider the fear that the Philistines have of the Lord versus the lack that the Israelites have. It takes them a while to figure it out, but the following advice of the Philistine diviners is indicative of one who recognizes his/her crime against God:
"So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land."
However, the eyes of their hearts were darkened to the obvious truth that because of the power of the God of Israel and all the events that took place while they were in possession of the ark of the covenant that He was the one true God and none of their gods compared to Him. So the God of Israel was the only God worthy of their devotion and indeed the only true God. Though they failed to make this final step, they certainly had more respect for God than did Israel.
When the ark goes back to Israel the men who had just offered sacrifiices to God look into the ark. How rude do you get? They do not even recognize God's holiness--instead they pridefully presume that because the ark came to them they deserved to treat it in whatever manner they chose--not in accordance with the law.
Despite Eli's failure to be a father to his sons, his attitude toward serving God is one we must adopt. In response to the prophesy of Samuel against his house, he says the following:
"It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him."
What faith! In essence what Eli is saying here is that even though God's judgment is against his house he's going to go on serving as a priest to the best of his ability no matter what because God is worthy! He doesn't care what happens to his house in comparison to his concern that he is submissive to God's will.
We must come to the point where we say:
"Lord Jesus, I’m going to obey you, and love you, and serve you, and do what you want me to do, as long as I live, even if I go to Hell at the end of the road, simply because you are worthy to be loved, and obeyed and served, and I’m not trying to make a deal with you!" -- Paris Reidhead | | |
| In the university setting in which I find myself, many of my peers (in age) are brilliant. However, many even more brilliant, experienced, possibly embittered people have led them into a dangerously incorrect conclusion. Let me give an example:
My first semester here at Texas A&M I took an Anthropology class entitled “Intro to Archaeology” from Dr. Bruce Dickson. Dr. Dickson is undoubtedly a brilliant man who has worked hard in Archaeological study, education, and fieldwork (for a more particular description click here). One thing I will always remember from his class is his hostility to the idea that a God or creator exists, saying, “The greatest lie ever told is that there is a God.” (He did not single out God--the “Christian God,” but for simplicity I will address only the implications of the statement to the Christian.)
In the above statement (which had nothing to do with what he was paid to teach--this was not a philosophy class) there is an underlying assumption made. That is that if one finds truth through the evidence of nature or anywhere outside the Bible then one has to make the choice between Jesus and intellectual honesty. But the Bible teaches otherwise, "For [God's] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So [men] are without excuse." (Romans 1:20) This verifies that truth can be found by anyone through nature. Two other examples are Paul at Mars' Hill (Acts 17:22-34), a law to themselves (Romans 2:14). So if Dr. Dickson teaches some truth in his study (he has undoubtedly done so), it should expand a Christian's awe of and faith in Jesus rather than detract from it, for Jesus is "the Truth" (John 14:6).
I'm not saying that all Dr. Dickson taught was the truth and that it all actuality points to Jesus. He probably has built his entire life around a set of incorrect conclusions early on in his life while other misled, brilliant people were influencing him. Most likely these conclusions were confirmed in his emotions through bad relationships with culturally boxed Christians. So I'm not placing the blame squarely on him, though he, like everyone else will account for his own actions.
Culturally boxed Christians? Such Christians are those who have been raised in a lazy view of Christianity where they may be taught by critical thinkers, but never learn to think critically themselves. As a result they have an immature faith that is not growing and the lack of growth affects their lives tremendously. Though they have seen a part of Jesus at first glance, they have then shut their eyes to further revelation. And so from fleshly driven conclusions they devise culturally acceptable rules to follow, slap a Christian label on them, and call them Christian without any leading of the Spirit they claim and are supposed to have. When someone doesn't fit into this boxed viewpoint, they are considered either second-class or just plain wrong.
Back to the main topic, as Christians we shouldn't think that we have to choose between the Bible and our education. We should approach everything outside the Bible that seems true from the perspective that God's truth is really the only truth. In other words, any truth we find outside the Bible should be verified by the word of God. John tells us to "not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." and he goes on to tell us how to do it, "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already." (1 John 4:1-3) | | |
| NOTE: Non-Calvinism and Anti-Calvinism are entirely different. A Non-Calvinist merely disagrees with at least one point of Calvinism while an Anti-Calvinist is militantly seeking to debunk Calvinism.
Travis Mitchell, a brother I highly respect, recently wrote an article entitled Why I am a Calvinist on his blog, www.steppinginfaith.com/. My response to it is as follows . . .
I would stress that your parenthetical statement “many may not believe” really means “many may not believe in Christ” and not “many people may not believe the doctrines of Calvinism.” The following is not meant to be an argument, but musings on the purpose of doctrine.
It’s refreshing (though you have told me personally before) to hear you speak so honestly about your pursuit of knowledge puffing you up with pride. I assert that this prideful knowledge of the scripture comes when you’ve displaced doctrine from its intended purpose. God gave us the Word to conform us into the image of His Son–He did not give us His Son to have us intellectually consent to a set of doctrines. He knows that all who are His will eventually become like His Son and perfect doctrine will be a byproduct.
But when we displace doctrine, making Jesus a means to the end of doctrine, the natural progression is to say, “Hey everyone! Look what I know. I learned it because I’m so great and studied so hard. The Holy Spirit had to give this revelation to me because I’m so deserving and didn’t give it to you cause you aren’t. That’s why I’m graciously giving it to you. Lets play ‘church’–I’ll be the preacher!”
Pride is very cunning. According to Paul we can even become prideful in our humility (false humility).
Doctrine is important–the most important being that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came in the flesh and died taking away our sin and guilt by paying for it on the cross, and Jesus is Lord. But it is clear that God’s intention for man was to glorify Himself through us in conforming us to the image of His son. The end is His glory–not our doctrine.
The reason arguments about Calvinism and so on are so easily divisive, is that it’s easy for Satan to twist our focus from the glory and the presence of God to a competition. We so strongly hold to our beliefs such that instead of focusing on encouraging one another to follow Christ, the focus of such a debate so often turns to who can win.
I’m not saying that there are many different paths to God (because the neither the path nor the door is doctrine). There is one path, namely Jesus Christ. There is one door, namely Jesus Christ. But we all find ourselves spiritually at different points. What matters is not where we’re coming from, but where we’re going to.
Much of the argument probably has to do with the inadequacy of language to describe the character, actions, and intent of God. If we were able to compeletly and accurately describe Him with a man made construct, we would surely not believe in Him. A god who cannot break through the confines of our language would not be God.
If the pursuit were perfect doctrine for doctrine’s sake it will be pointless and unfulfilling. Our knowledge will pass away, “but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-7) Our pursuit of doctrine should have one end–the glorification of God through our submission to the Holy Spirit conforming us into the image of Jesus. | | |
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