30March2012

Love God & Do What You Please: Five Demands

Written By robfaircloth

The phrase “will of God” appears several times in the Bible. In most of those instances, it is used to describe something that has happened, as when Paul describes himself as called to be an apostle “according to the will of God.”

We previously discussed Two Directives involved in a believer’s attempt to walk in the will of God: his moral will and mission instructions. Because the Bible does not direct us to find God’s personal, individual will for our lives other than these things, we start with these directives as a guide for making those choices which need it and for which there is no clear biblical answer.

In addition to the Two Directive of God’s moral will and his mission instruction, we also have God’s Five Demands (depending on how you count them…). In those few instances that the Bible describes the “will of God” and then actually defines it, we find further resources to make decisions. The Five Demands (“the will of God is…”) are:

1) that you be saved (2 Peter 3:9)

2) that you be wise (Ephesians 5:17-18)

3) that you be sanctified (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4)

4) that you be submitting (1 Peter 2:13-15)

5) that you be rejoicing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Some describe 2) as that you be Spirit-filled, and include another description of the will of God that we be suffering. For them, the list looks like this:

  • that you be saved
  • that you be Spirit-filled
  • that you be sanctified
  • that you be submitting
  • that you be suffering

Regardless of how they are counted, the point is that these clear expressions of God’s will — in addition to God’s moral demands — provide the believer with ample material with which to evaluate decisions, opportunities and choices facing us for which there is no clear biblical direction.

If we are saved, are being wise (being Spirit-filled), are being sanctified, are submitting, and are rejoicing (in suffering, perhaps), then we need not resort to putting out the fleece, casting lots, reading signs, walking through open doors or around closed ones, or any of the other myriad ways we sanctify pagan notions of receiving divine guidance.

While neither the two directive or five demands serve as a checklist for each decision we face, they do provide us an overall “trajectory” for a life directed toward God, powered by the Spirit, legitimized by Christ, and aimed at making disciples.

26March2012

Supreme Court & ObamaCare

Written By robfaircloth

Some time ago I posted an article entitled Running the Country 5-4, which addressed the issue of significant national questions being decided along party lines in the U.S. Supreme Court.

We have 100 U.S. Senators, 435 U.S. Representatives, and a President. With all that mental power being directed toward dealing appropriately with national issues within the confines of the U.S. Constitution, it would seem that we should not have so many important issues still falling in the laps of 9 unelected Supreme Court Justices.

It is a travesty that such crucial issues are decided by a bare majority of unelected officials. Yet that is precisely what is once again on the horizon regarding the constutionality of national healthcare, aka ObamaCare.

If Justices did not cast ballots along such clearly partisan lines, close votes would be much more palatable. Here’s hoping that the ObamaCare result will be an outlier.

22March2012

Love God and do what you please: two directives

Written By robfaircloth

It should be readily apparent that doing the will of God is emphasized in Scripture, and that knowing the will of God is of paramount importance to those who follow Christ.

The problem comes when I seek to “know the will of God for my life” in terms as significant as who I should marry and those as mundane as what I should eat for breakfast.

Scripture is clear that God wills. Some of his willing he has revealed to us “ahead of time” in the demands for holiness and moral living that he places on his people. Some of his willing he does not tell us “ahead of time” and we never know until after the fact: as the old saying goes, if you want to know God’s will for next Tuesday, wait until next Wednesday.

But nowhere in God’s word do we find any instruction to find God’s will for our lives, other than his moral will. We are not promised to know God’s preference for each decision we make or for each choice we face before the deciding and choosing.

This does not mean, however, that God doesn’t have a revealed preference for how we choose. Broadly speaking, God’s preference for us is to live our lives and make our decisions following the way of wisdom. In so doing, we reflect the fact that despite the fall we still bear God’s image, which includes the mandate to have dominion over the earth. As we become conformed to the image of Christ, we conform our will to his, and can, as Augustine quipped, “Love God and do what we please.”

In the meantime, there are guideposts in the Scriptures to help us think through our daily decision-making. I suggest we think of these guideposts as the Two Directives and Five Demands.

The Two Directives: Moral Will and Mission Instruction

Informing and guiding the trajectory of our lives, including how we make daily choices, are the grand themes of God’s 1) moral will and his 2) mission instruction. God’s moral will is his demand that we be holy, for he is holy, including the Ten Commandments, the “be” commands, and all the other instructions for how we are to live while on the earth. God’s moral will is further delineated for us in the Five Demands, which I will discuss in a later article.

Mission Instruction

People are on earth for a purpose. God’s people are on earth and are his for a purpose. This “chief end of man”, as the Westminster Catechism describes it, is to love God and enjoy him forever. Specifically, while we are “between the times” of Christ’s first advent (the inauguration of the kingdom) and his second advent (the consummation of the kingdom), we are to carry the message of man’s chief end and the means to that end — the gospel of Jesus Christ — to all people on earth.

The primary statement of our mission instruction is the Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:18-20.

So, when we are faced with decisions regarding which school to attend, what course of study to pursue, who to marry, where to live, we should be thinking how the options we have either further the mission or impede the mission.

There are, of course, more details to consider, which we haven’t space to discuss here. But the point is that the believer should always be thinking of the mission — the Great Commission — and his responsibility in it before God when living life. We should be constantly resisting the common default decision-guiders, such as obtaining the dual-income-dual-garage-dual-kid life, pursuing the “American dream,” “finding oneself”, or even the rather wispy concept of “happiness”. (This pursuit of “happiness,” after all, is what frequently provides justification for the middle-aged man to leave his wife and children for another woman: hardly God’s will in any sense.)

Like soldiers on the field of battle, believers searching for guidance do well to consider the completion of the mission.

14March2012

Why LifeWay’s Gospel Project has no video

Written By robfaircloth

People obviously enjoy video-based Bible study curricula, and such resources can have a place in an individual’s practice of his faith. Many ask me about their use, and under what circumstances they are appropriate.

LifeWay’s The Gospel Project series of adult, young adult, and kids’ curricula does not incorporate video.

During a simulcast on the project held March 14, LifeWay’s Ed Stetzer responded to a question regarding their decision, and his answer is relevant to any church’s — and any member’s — evaluation of video-based curricula. Paraphrased, Stetzer said:

We not only want to encourage learning by members, but also teaching in the local church.

In other words, video-based lessons could certainly facilitate learning, but they do nothing to facilitate the raising up and training of teachers, and they do not contribute toward the healthy circumstance in which local mouths other than the preacher’s are speaking gospel truth to members.

13March2012

Becoming less ignorant of Scripture: plan

Written By robfaircloth

Statistics abound regarding the level of ignorance regarding the Holy Bible. Even among those who profess to follow Jesus Christ, our knowledge of the Bible and what it says can be compared to karate: we know just enough to get ourselves hurt.

There is, however, a solution that is not all that complicated: read the Bible.

In When I Dont’ Desire God John Piper stresses the importance of regular Scripture intake when our Christian life seems to me more drudgery than joy. Here are some suggestions adapted from his treatment of the subject in a chapter he titles “How to Wield the Word in the Fight for Joy”:

Plan

Year-long Bible reading plans can be daunting, but our planning to read doesn’t need to be as detailed or as long-range as that. Take a look at your schedule, pick a time to read your Bible each day, and write it down so that you remember it.

Protect

Treat your selected time for Bible-reading as you would any other appointment (at least as you would any other appointment). The tyranny of the urgent is relentless, and there will always be other things vying for your time. It will seem so easy to say ‘I can always re-schedule my Bible reading appointment’, but you generally won’t.

Prioritize

It is generally better to schedule your reading time in the mornings. If confessions are in order, I am a night-owl, so this morning reading has been historically difficult for me. But I can also testify to the benefits of beginning my day with Scripture. You will, too.

Privatize

I remember an anecdote about a mother who had little space and little time for a “prayer closet.” But everyone knew that when she knelt in the corner with her apron over her head, she was to be left alone with her Bible and her prayer. Make sure that you have a place and time to avoid interruptions. (And turn the cell phone off!).

Because we are both saved and sanctified through grace, we should not become legalistic and think that the scheduling of Bible reading itself is was benefits us with God. Instead, being intentional and deliberate about our Bible reading is a tool that helps us hear from God in the Scriptures.

13March2012

Does trying to be Christian make you anxious?

Written By robfaircloth

Book recommendation — Good News for Anxious Christians: 10 Practical Things You Don’t Have to Do (Phillip Cary, Brazos 2010).

I don’t plan a full review of Cary’s book, but do recommend it for reading.

Cary’s aim is to explode some of the more prominent myths about being a Christian — the truisms or conventional wisdom that only tend to make us anxious, because they inherently fail. One caveat or word of caution I would offer is that Cary tends toward focusing solely on justification, almost to the exclusion of sanctification. For example, Cary says that the way to make a change in people’s lives is “not by telling them how to change their lives, but by telling them about Christ and how he has changed everything.” It is true that Christ has changed everything, but Cary treats the subject as if Scripture never says anything about obedience, fruits of conversion, holiness, and examining ourselves for the evidences of conversion. There are things that believers are called to do, and the reader should keep this in mind.

Here are some of the provocative subjects Cary takes up (I say “provocative” because of Cary’s own description of what he’s doing. He says that his book is a “stealth attempt to preach the gospel” against what he deems the “new evangelical theology.” Provocative, maybe, but not quite so stealthy):

Why you Don’t Have to “Let God Take Control” (Or, How Obedience is for Responsible Adults)

The vernacular version of the idea Cary addresses here is the popular church marquee slogan that says “Let Go and Let God.” Cary points out that this imperative is not truly workable, and actually is quite incomprehensible. Cary illustrates how this concept removes the whole category of Christian obedience from discipleship, as if God were doing the obeying for us.

[I also wonder how the “let go and let God” concept fits in to various soteriologies: can an Arminian, who is against God’s control in salvation, think we should let God control our sanctification?]

Why You Don’t Have to “Find God’s Will for Your Life” (Or, How Faith Seeks Wisdom)

Everyone wants to know God’s will…when seeking a wife or husband, when choosing a job, when picking lottery numbers (checking to see if you’re paying attention). Cary points out the uncomfortable fact that many times when people who profess belief in Christ wonder about God’s will in a particular matter or when facing a particular decision they know very little of God’s actual revealed will in the Scripture.

In addition to his argument that there is no single, individual, personal will of God for every decision we face, Cary argues that seeking the will of God by being adept students of Scripture would probably eliminate the angst we frequently face in decision-making.

Why “Applying It to Your Life” Is Boring (Or, How the Gospel is Beautiful)

Cary acknowledges that proper preaching includes help to see ourselves as those who “receive [Christ’s] commands and promises” but claims that “applying it to our lives” is the most boring part of the sermon. I disagree with Cary to the extent that application is at least an explained command. Without such explanation, it is difficult to imagine what Cary would preach other than to simply read the words of Scripture itself.

However, I do agree with Cary that application is twisted beyond recognition when it overtakes the entire sermon, and creates the idea that preaching consists of Seven Steps to This and Four Keys of That.

Cary addresses other matters (seven others, actually) and offers a corrective to some of the unbiblical notions of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Keeping in mind the caveat mentioned above, the reader should find much thought-provoking material here.

8March2012

Intolerant ‘tolerance’ hits the chicken sandwich

Written By robfaircloth

One would think that the draw of an almost perfect chicken sandwich would override philosophical abstractions in the hearts and minds (and bellies) of college students.

Apparently not.

Chick-fil-A has encountered opposition from student groups opposed to the company’s philanthropic leanings, claiming that it is “anti-gay.”

Most revealing is the NewSpeak that otherwise allegedly intelligent administrators adopt in catering to a fraction of the student body:

School administrators supported the decision, saying the company’s principles contradicted Northeastern’s respect for diversity and support for the gay community: “We are proud of the decision that affirms our university’s commitment to be an inclusive, diverse community that is respectful of all,” college spokeswoman Renata Nyul said in a prepared statement.

Inclusive, diverse and respectful to all, that is, except for those who disagree.

The blatant hypocrisy and perverted logic in this sort of pabulum would be funny if were not becoming increasingly problematic not just to free access to a good chicken sandwich, but to religious liberty.