Up late reading St. Augustine, and this quote simply rocked me! (Taken with instagram)

Once I remember walking with a prosperous publisher, who made a remark which I had often heard before; it is, indeed, almost a motto of the modern world. Yet I had heard it once too often, and I saw suddenly that there was nothing in it. The publisher said of somebody, “That man will get on; he believes in himself.” And I remember that as I lifted my head to listen, my eye caught an omnibus on which was written “Hanwell.” I said to him, “Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves? For I can tell you. I know of men who believe in themselves more colossally than Napoleon or Caesar. I know where flames the fixed star of certainty and success. I can guide you to the thrones of the Super-men. The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.” He said mildly that there were a good many men after all who believed in themselves and who were not in lunatic asylums. “Yes, there are,” I retorted, “and you of all men ought to know them. That drunken poet from whom you would not take a dreary tragedy, he believed in himself. That elderly minister with an epic from whom you were hiding in a back room, he believed in himself. If you consulted your business experience instead of your ugly individualistic philosophy, you would know that believing in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter. Actors who can’t act believe in themselves; and debtors who won’t pay. It would be much truer to say that a man will certainly fail, because he believes in himself. Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness. Believing utterly in one’s self is a hysterical and superstitious belief like believing in Joanna Southcote: the man who has it has `Hanwell’ written on his face as plain as it is written on that omnibus.” And to all this my friend the publisher made this very deep and effective reply, “Well, if a man is not to believe in himself, in what is he to believe?” After a long pause I replied, “I will go home and write a book in answer to that question.” This is the book that I have written in answer to it.

— G.K. Chesterton “Orthodoxy”

A response to the “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus” debate….

The video “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus” has exploded on the scene, and has done much to clarify the Christian message, but also has caused some dispute and confusion. The word “religion” has such a broad lexical range, that one can define it in many different ways. Religion can be a belief about a God or gods, supernatural creation, and an afterlife. It can also be a set of faith assumptions that one makes about the world around them; which answers life’s biggest questions of origin, meaning, and morality. Lastly religion can be a system of beliefs in which man works his way to God, through righteous deeds and pious living, so that he achieves whatever end goal the religion offers; whether it is heaven, Nirvana, and so forth. The dispute over this particular poem lies, not in the message, but in the definition of the term “religion”.  Now most people think of religion as the first definition (see above), but the problem with this view is that it is insufficient. Not all “religions” believe in a God or gods, for instance, Zen Buddhism by anybody’s definition is a religion; yet, it is essentially atheistic. In Zen Buddhism there is no God or gods, only the struggle to be liberated from the “self”. Therefore, this first and most famous definition of religion is coherent, but not complete. That brings us to the second definition, this is the one that I believe best defines religion in its broadest sense. Essentially at the core of every system of belief is epistemology, and epistemology asks the question “how do you know what you know”. I believe that all religious systems must answer this “by faith”. Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t good reasons to place your faith in one religious system over the other; all I’m simply saying is that in order to hold to any worldview faithfully, certain faith assumptions must be made. This is why, according to this definition, atheism is a religion. It is unfalsifiable, and therefore thoroughly religious. The atheist cannot disprove God anymore than the religious can prove God. Therefore, the atheist must believe on faith that God does not exist. Now, the video seems to deal mostly with the third definition of “religion” (see above). In this sense the video achieved its purpose. It showed how Christianity is not about propositions but about a relationship with the living God, it is not man climbing the heavenly ladder, but about God becoming the heavenly ladder. The poet wants to show that Christianity is about what God has done, and therefore salvation is a gift to be received and not a work that we earn. Now, I agree that the poem has some ambiguous language and leaves us guessing at certain points. “Is he for religion or against it?” “Is Christianity really not a religion?”  Yet, what we really must ask is: “in what sense is he using the word “religion?” I believe that much of the confusion and clarification lies in that question. As Christians, let us spend less time bickering about semantics and more time living true to the religion that we have, so that those who do not know our God, may see Him by our deeds.

Blessings,

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.

— Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Everything that is not substantial blows away in the wind. That is why chasing the lusts of our flesh is called “vanity” by Solomon in Ecclesiastes. Chasing the wind is futile and pointless, and yet we do it every day. We chase after success rather than righteousness, status rather than humility, and we are avaricious rather than generous. This is the foundation of the world and society in which we live, but the irony lies in the fact that cultural trends vacillate and none of them are absolute. It would be unpropitious for us to chase the winds of the culture instead of the solid rock of Christ’s words. Only Jesus provides us with a fixed perspective in which we have assurance of consistency and also the guarantee of veracity. Because culture is relative, Jesus is our only hope. (Psalm 1:4)

The scary thing about Paul’s exhortation to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1-4 is not so much that these warnings are given to Timothy about non-Christian people. For in fact even in the times of Paul there were unbelievers who were “lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive,” and so forth. No, the fearful thing is in v.5 “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” Paul was not talking about unbelievers; Paul was talking about the church! Professing Christians, who in the last days would look more like Satan then they would like Jesus! This is our time and generation, we are living in the last days, it is essential that every Christian “avoid such people”; and if we are one of these people it is even more essential that we repent and turn from worldliness to pursue true godliness! (2 Timothy 3:9)

Jesus said that when He is lifted up, He will draw people to Himself. After meditatiang on that verse Iam in awe. How was Jesus lifted up? On the cross right? And what happened on the cross? Jesus Christ lost of all His beauty and glory. So basically what Jesus Christ is actually saying is that by losing His beauty, He will look even more beautiful to us; and by losing His glory, He will look even more glorious to us. Jesus Christ at the cross won us by losing! (John 12:33-34)

We are so fallen and debased that we will by nature use anything as an excuse or rationalization to not believe in God. In Pontius Pilate’s case, he sought ways in which to release Jesus, but the religious leaders were so ferocious that they continued cry for the blood of Jesus. Of course had Jesus not willingly surrendered His rights Pilate, nor anyone else for that matter, would have had no authority over Him. Jesus Christ surrendered His rights as a Son, so that you and I could have rights as slaves. We are born slaves, Jesus is a natural Son. Yet Jesus gives up His rights so that we, who formerly had none, could be called children of the living God. (John 19:9-12, 8:34-36)

We all need “power” and “grace”

The apostles gave their testimony to the resurrected Christ with “great power”, but at the same time “great grace” was upon them all. True power is always undergirded by grace, it was not“power” alone that the disciples needed but “grace” as well. We tend to lust after power more than grace because power shows self-sufficiency and grace shows a lack of adequacy; yet for the Christian, power and grace must coexist if they are going to effectively follow Jesus, the God of truth and the Lord of grace. Power without grace is not really power, its tyranny, and grace without power is not really grace, its acquiescence. So we must seek to strike this ever sensitive balance of power and grace, and the only way to do so, is by looking to the the example of Jesus and following Him. We can never perfectly follow Jesus therefore we need ”power”, and we can never perfectly follow Jesus therefore we need “grace”. Only until we see our need for power and grace, can we run to the Lord of power and grace. (Acts 4:33)

From Moses through all of the prophets, the proclamation of the coming of Jesus was boldly made. The bible is not about us, it is not about how man can work his way up to God, it is not about wise sayings and proverbs for life, it is not a random collection of stories, hymns, and narratives. The bible is God’s 66 book narrative that weaves and intertwines together the amazing story of His love, His holiness, and redemption by faith in His Son. The bible is primarily about Jesus, and until we read it that way, we will never be changed by it. The bible is an objective story, not about what you can do, but about what God has already done and what God will eventually do. The underlying invitation in the Bible is to come to faith in Jesus Christ, and to be apart of God’s reconciling the world to Himself.

Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, not simply as an act of kindness or humility but as an example. John tells us that Jesus knew that He had come from God and that He was going back to God. This is important for us to notice if we are going to grasp the depth of what Jesus did. Jesus Christ, because He absolutely knew who He was, did not need to create a façade or a false identity in order to be accepted or feel accepted by men. Jesus knew that He was God’s Son, and that He was going back to be with the Father forever; therefore He did what only true leaders do, He served. The reason why most of us look down on servitude is that we feel it beneath us, or that we feel that by laying ourselves down for others they may take advantage of us or view our kindness as weakness. Not Jesus. Jesus served, even though He was fully entitled to be served. Once our façades are eliminated by the gospel, we are liberated to be people who serve, rather than feeling an entitlement to be served. The gospel tells us that we are saved by grace (we are sinners), but the gospel also tells us that we are saved by grace (we are loved). This message challenges our idols, and confronts our insecurities. Ultimately, when properly understood, the gospel liberates us to serve God and serve the world, not out of guilt but out of love. (John 13:3-6, 12-17)

“A people without understanding shall come to ruin.” These are the words of the LORD to His rebellious people, yet how poignant and relevant are those words even to us today. We, here in America, have enshrined the idea that morality is relative and that God does not exist. What that has inevitably led to is that we have become a people without understanding. We can study the earth through science, but we cannot understand the earth, we can study the universe but we cannot understand the universe, we can study life but we cannot understand life. Just when we think that we have life all figured out, something happens to us or around us and we realize that we haven’t even began to scratch the surface. This is what happens when man forgets God, it was once said that “man will never be at peace with himself, until he is at peace with God” to this I agree; but it should also be said that “man will never begin to understand Himself, until He begins to understand God.” (Hosea 4:14)

Objectively free, subjectively in bondage

If we read John’s account of Peter’s denial of Jesus we see a common theme; Peter, though He was objectively free in Christ, still was a slave and in bondage to people subjectively. The apostle denies Jesus, but He doesn’t deny Jesus in the presence of the rulers of Israel; Peter denies Jesus in the presence of slaves. First Peter denies Jesus to a slave girl, next He denies Jesus while standing at a fire with a group of slaves warming himself, and lastly He denies Jesus to a slave who was a relative of Malchus. Why? The answer is quite simple; the apostle Peter was still a slave. It would only be fitting that Peter, who was subjectively still in bondage, would deny Jesus in the presence of others who were subjectively still in bondage. What Peter’s denial teaches us is that the fear of man is a snare, that once we are caught in, only Jesus can set us free. Peter is not unique, we as Christians deny Jesus every day. It often happens in obscure ways, but we do it. Either we capitulate to the persuasion of our friends to do something that we know we shouldn’t, or we walk right past a person that is homeless or needy, or we simply privatize our faith so that no one around us realizes that we are Christians. Denial comes in all sorts, but it is still denial. Do you feel guilty yet? Good because so do I, and we rightly feel guilty. Peter felt guilty after He denied Jesus; the real question is where do we go from here? The answer to that is right to the foot of the cross! As believers we are not saved by our performance, we are saved by His performance; we are not saved by our faithfulness, we are saved by His faithfulness. What the gospel does is de-construct you and re-construct you at the same time. We are sinners, this de-constructs our pride in performance, yet we are loved, this re-constructs our self-image and gives us our worth. Find your worth in Jesus and you will find yourself becoming more like Him. This will give you both boldness and a humility that can only come because we are saved by grace; this will keep us from acquiescing to the culture, but it will also keep us from moralistic pride. It is those Christians who live as if their kingdom is not of this world that actually have had the most prolific impact on this world. . (John 18:17-18, 25-27)

The reason why Peter and Judas had two radically different lives is actually quite simple…. Peter had a mediator. Both Peter and Judas denied Jesus, and both were despondent because of their unbelief; yet one hung himself and the other went on to be one of the pillars of the early church. Why? The reason is because Peter had a mediator, while Judas didn’t. This is why two people can commit the same sins, and yet one sees those sins as offensive to God and the other does not. What every Christian has is a mediator, and not just any mediator but the ultimate intermediary that stands before God and man and gets the things for which He asks. (John 17:9-12, Luke 22:31-32, 1 Timothy 2:5)

Great illnesses seldom attack the body, without a previous train of premonitory symptoms. Great falls seldom happen to a saint, without a previous course of secret backsliding. The church and the world are sometimes shocked by the sudden misconduct of some great professor of religion. Believers are discouraged and stumbled by it. The enemies of God rejoice and blaspheme. But if the truth could be known, the explanation of such cases would generally be found to have been private departure from God. People fall in private, long before they fall in public. The tree falls with a great crash, but the secret decay which accounts for it, is often not discovered until it is down on the ground.

— J.C. Ryle