Daily Works Verses #3

Posted on 10/19/2013 by Paul Pavao

See introduction and explanation.

This is a series that is in addition to my regular posts. If you arrive at the home page and see this post, make sure you check the second post as well.

Day 3: [Jesus Christ] gave himeself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no man despise you. (Tit. 2:13-14)

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Daily Works Verses #2

Posted on 10/18/2013 by Paul Pavao

See explanation and introduction.

Day 2: This saying is faithful, and concerning these things I desire that you affirm confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men; but shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the lawe; for they are unprofitable and vain. (Tit. 3:8-9)

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Warn the Unruly, Knock Out the Fainthearted: WHY?

Posted on 10/18/2013 by Paul Pavao

I am elevating a comment of mine to a post. There are other comments on that page, which you may want to read to put mine in context.

Communication in the internet is important, but difficult.

Part of the problem is in my last comment. We are to warn the unruly but encourged the fainthearted and help the weak. I direct a lot of posts at the unruly because they’ve created a lot more false doctrine than the fainthearted and weak have.

You’re none of the three, so I don’t worry about you. However, I’m sure some of the fainthearted and weak read what I write, feel like it’s directed at them, and they simply feel punched in the gut by me, not convicted by God.

It’s so hard to know what to do because I believe the false doctrine needs to be weeded out. It slays people spiritually. I need a meter on my blog that is continually counting higher with a caption that says, “4,315 goats slip into hell every day thinking they are sheep.”

That’s 300 million people in the United States, 70% of which claim to be Christian, and 60% of those say they are not growing or backsliding. If each of those 60% of 70% of 300 million people live to 80 years, then 4315 of them will be dying every day.

And that’s assuming that the 28% of Americans who believe they are godly, growing Christians really are, which we all know is not remotely true.

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Emphasis on Works?

Posted on 10/17/2013 by Paul Pavao

I’m sure some people think that I have an overemphasis on works.

I am going to try an experiment. I am going to post one verse or passage a day for as long as I can that addresses works for the Christian. I’m guessing I can keep it up for at least six months. I won’t stretch any passages out by dividing them into individual verses. If a whole passage is discussing works, I’ll use the whole passage that day.

These will be short, so they’re not in place of regular posts. If you entered on this blog’s home page, make sure you look at the second post, too, which is probably more important.

Day 1: Let our people also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful. (Tit. 3:14)

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The Church as a Corporation

Posted on 10/17/2013 by Paul Pavao

Somebody got the bright idea a few years ago that churches should be managed like businesses. So pastors became CEOs, and ministry was put on an assembly line.—J. Lee Grady

I agree with the J. Lee Grady, except on the time frame. Slowly, 17 centuries ago, the idea set in and took over that churches should be managed like businesses.

What happened a few years ago is that we got a lot more blatant about it, and it became acceptable for pastors to forget that shepherding is their primary occupation. “Church growth” was an adequate replacement.

It’s not the first time. Late middle age priests, bishops, cardinals, and the pope himself lost all thought of shepherding God’s people. Those roles were political roles, filled primarily by people who bought their way into them. (Even the RCC admits this.  The Catholic Encyclopedia, under “Simony”: ” … to uproot the evil of simony so prevalent during the Middle Ages”; emphasis added)

The Renaissance raised enough light to bring some reform in the Roman Catholic Church, and then the Reformation brought a strong reminder that the pastor is first and foremost a shepherd.

But since the Reformation did nothing to correct the structure, the “church” remained an organization (not yet called a corporation, but functioning as one), and a return to the struggle for popularity and power was inevitable.

The church is not a corporation; it is a family.

Traits of a Family

Families do employ trusts to manage assets. Some families may even own corporations. God’s family, however, tends to be owned by the corporation, and Biblical commands to submit to leaders are transferred to CEOs, corporations, and boards of directors … though we are careful to rename all of those with biblical names (pastors, chuches, elders or deacons, respectively).

1 Thessalonians 5:12 tells us:

We ask you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, who go before you in the Lord, and who admonish you.

We like to quote Hebrews 13 about submitting to and obeying elders, but 1 Thess. 5 doesn’t address official “elders.” It exhorts us to know the ones who labor, lead, and admonish.

That’s what happens in a family. Everyone knows the “go to” people. They all know who leads, who admonishes, who does all the work to keep the family together.

As a side note, a family also knows who just shows up. Just showing up is not always a problem. Why do we need shepherds if we don’t have sheep? In a family, those who just show up are still expected to contribute in cleanup and being part of the family, but most members of a family are sheep, not shakers, movers, and organizers.

It is to those workers that our allegiance is due. Yes, they seem more official in Hebrews 13:7,17, and 24. They are “those who lead.” They are nonetheless the same people.

Shepherds and Hirelings

The tried men of our elders preside over us, obtaining that honor not by purchase, but by established character. (Tertullian, Apology 39, c. AD 210)

Jesus warned of hirelings and how they could not be trusted as shepherds, yet we nonetheless hire our shepherds just like corporations do. They go to school, they present their credentials in a resume, and they are hired.

We see that this was not done in the early church. Elders earned their position by proven character, living among the people and remaining in the same congregation.

This was such an entrenched practice that the Council of Nicea made it an official rule that deacons, elders, or overseers (bishops) cannot “pass from city to city” (Canon 15).

I am told by other historians that overseers and elders of the pre-Nicene era (before Nicea) were not paid. They were simply supported with room and board like the widows. I have been unable to verify this, and I don’t know where it came from. It seems to contradict 1 Tim. 5:17, “Let the elders who lead well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the Word and teaching.” Maybe “honor” there really is just honor, not money, but it seems like money to me because of v. 18. (I’ll let you research that on your own. Compare 1 Timothy 5:18 to 1 Corinthians 9:7-11.)

Either way, the early churches raised up shepherds. They did not hire executives. Our institutions hire executives trained at universities that we call seminaries. We expect our executives to visit the sick and do some other duties of a shepherd, and we certainly expect them to deliver a rousing, Bible-based speech every week.

While these executives have taken over the role and title of pastor, just as their corporations have taken on the role and title of the church, they remain executives and their employing organization remains a corporation.

Changing their titles just hides the fact that our real shepherds are unrecognized and the Lord’s church lies in ruins and has been forgotten.

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Having the Holy Ghost and Going to Hell

Posted on 10/16/2013 by Paul Pavao

I was reading a book today, and it was very convicting. In fact, I went through our movies and pulled about 15 out to be thrown away. I was happily surprised to see how many I didn’t have to throw away because the standard was pretty stiff.

Maybe I should be convicted about just how many we have.

The book, The Great Gospel Deception, was good for me. The conviction hurt. I needed it.

But one thing struck me hard, I felt depressed. I laid down for just a few minutes trying to sort out whether it was further conviction and, if not, to wonder why it bothered me so.

The author suggested that people who watch movies that have sex scenes in them aren’t saved. He gave some really good reasons. We dosn’t watch sex scenes. We own a DVD player (ClearPlay) that filters movies so that it’s like watching a TV version. Today, I threw away movies that had sex scenes or flirted around too much. I agree they’re not worth watching, even with a filter.

There was a time when I struggled with pornography, You might as well know; most people who know me know. I confessed it to the church (the men at least) and my wife. In fact, sadly, I had to make that repentance twice.

I was teaching at the time. I was a Christian that people looked up to. It took the help of friends to bring me to control my lusts and be obedient to God.

Was I unsaved that whole time? If so, did I suddenly become saved without knowing it by repenting for that sin and turning away from it? (I guess using “repent” and “turn away from” in the same sentence is redundant.)

I don’t think so. I think I had the Holy Spirit. I think I did a lot of things in the church that were giftings of God. I had long periods of repentance and obedience, and I had long periods of ongoing sin.

I’m certain I am not the only one who has lived like this. In fact, I have a friend who wrote a book about deliverance from secret sins, and in particular pornography, so there’s at least one other. He’s public about it, too.

We all know that he and I are not the only ones.

I do, however, have to agree with the writer that I was probably headed to hell for long periods of my Christian life.

Whenever I was practicing that kind of sin, I wondered. Jesus said that if you look upon a woman to lust after her, you have already committed adultery in your heart. Those who commit adultery don’t inherit the kingdom of heaven (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5). It’s as simple as that. I know, at least on a surface reading of Scripture, I should expect to be condemned at the judgment.

How Could a Christian Be Condemned at the Judgment?

The standard answer is that people who think they are Christians will be condemned at the judgment. We have an example of that in Matthew 7:22-23:

Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’ 23 Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’

I don’t agree with that answer. I don’t think the apostles or the early churches agreed with it, either.

Therefore, brothers, you are not debtors to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. However, if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the flesh, then you will live. (Rom. 8:12-13)

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked. Whoever sows to the flesh will reap corruption from the flesh. Whoever sows to the Spirit will reap everlasting life from the Spirit. Therefore, do not grow weary in doing good, for in due season you will reap [eternal life], if you do not lose heart. (Gal. 6:7-9)

Yes, I know I added the words “eternal life” in brackets in that last Scripture quote, but that’s because I want you to look at the context. Paul just says reap in v. 9, but reap what? Most of you probably have a word you would insert after “reap,” but it wouldn’t be “everlasting life.” The context, however, demands “everlasting life.”

I don’t know how you can read those two passages without reading that Christians are being told that they have the power to live by the Spirit, but if they live by the flesh instead, they can expect to die, and that means spiritually. Even those who put to death the deeds of the body are going to die physically. Romans 8:12 is not about physical death.

If you want to dispute that, don’t. You are among those whom I don’t want to comment on my blog. If you can’t see that Romans 8:12 is not about physical death, then you’re not looking, and it’s a waste of time to discuss anything with you. Instead, put a comment that says, “I’m blind, purposely, please pray for me.” It will help you. There’s some very godly and effective people of prayer who read this blog.

If you have real, honest questions, feel free to ask them.

Think about the “therefore” that is in Romans 8:12. As a lot of preachers have told me, “When you see a ‘therefore,’ find out what it’s there for!”

“Therefore,” in the case of Romans 8:12, is there for verse 11, which says that if the Spirit is in you, then he will give life to your mortal bodies. If you go all the way back to the start of chapter 8, you see that Paul is telling the Romans that the Spirit of Life, the one that is giving life to our mortal bodies in verse 11, has delivered us from the body of death as described in Romans 7. If walk in the Spirit, if we set our mind on the Spirit, then the righteous requirement of the Law will be fulfilled in us, and the peace of God will be in us.

So in Romans 8:12 Paul is addressing people who have the Holy Spirit. Because the Spirit in you has given life to your mortal body, then you are no longer indebted to that body. Don’t live by it. Instead, put its deeds to death by the Spirit that dwells in you.

Simple enough to say; much harder to do.

And it’s much harder in this age that tells you that if live according to the flesh, you will live.

It’s not true.

Here’s another passage like it. Peter tells us to add virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love to our faith (2 Pet. 1:5-7). (So much for “don’t add to your faith.”)

It’s what he says afterward that’s so surprising.

Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. (2 Pet. 1:10-11)

There’s no doubt in this passage what “these things” are. He uses “these things” twice in verses 8 and 9, thus tying the knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love that we add to faith to “these things” in verses 10 and 11.

The word “thus” means “in this way.” “In this way” you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal kingdom. In which way? By doing “these things.” It will make your calling and election sure.

So who is supposed to add to faith?

Clearly Peter is speaking to Christians. Christians are the ones who have faith, and we are to add to our faith if we want to make our calling and election sure.

So What If We Don’t Add to Our Faith? What If We Sow to the Flesh Instead?

Does God really have to take the Holy Spirit away from us if we start practicing sin? I know people quote some verses about God being of too pure eyes to behold sin, but if the Holy Spirit can’t be where sin is, then we’re all toast. Jesus hung out with sinners, remember?

The Kindness of God

I know modern evangelicals hate that idea. Most of them can’t conceive of the idea of a Spirit-filled Christian beginning to practice sin, then dying and going to hell. Obviously, at some point, that means the Spirit has departed from that person, even if it’s on the way to the judgment, but the whole idea has never even been thought about by most people, except maybe some radical Pentecostals. They’re usually not afraid of the word works, and they can acknowledge that the judgment is by works, not by whether God granted you the Holy Spirit.

Why would it be bizarre if God gave you every chance to repent and be rewarded with an entrance into his kingdom?

If you fall into practicing some sin that could condemn your soul to hell, which dozens of Scriptures (some given above) says is possible, why should God take his Spirit from you and completely ruin your chances of repenting? God is kind. He wants you to come to repentance, and your best shot is for God to continue to deal with you by the Spirit.

If you harden your heart, he will have failed, and your time in hell, whether you are instantly annihilated or tormented forever (I still can’t come to grips with that doctrine), will be your fault. He will have done everything, pleading with you from outside through brothers and from inside through the conviction of the Spirit to bring you to repentance.

Think of King David. He was living in adultery and guilty of murder until the prophet Nathan came to him. He repented, and the judgment of God came upon him, but only the temporal judgment of God. Eternally, his soul was saved.

What if God had removed his Spirit from David like he removed his Spirit from Saul? David’s heart surely would have hardened, and no repentance would have been possible to him.

James writes, “Brothers, if any of you err from the truth, and someone converts him, then let him know that the one who converts the sinner from the error of his ways will save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins” (5:19-20).

Paul warns the believers at Corinth, “We shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to receive the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).

“Do not grow weary in doing good,” he tells the Galatians, “for in due season you will reap [eternal life], if you do not lose heart.” How are they going to not grow weary and not lose heart if they do not have the Holy Spirit to empower them?

Continuing in sin without repentance clearly carries the judgment of not inheriting or entering the kingdom of God. Whether you have the Holy Spirit or not, if you harden your heart to “the least of these,” you will be one of the accursed sent by Jesus into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (hopefully to perish eternally, rather than to be tortured eternally).

That’s how it is. Preaching something different to Christians is not nice or sweet. It is not going to help them. Our modern Gospel that tells us that God will kindly forgive us when we are looking at pornography every day, or living in selfish ambition and the pursuit of “piles of cash” every day, or blowing our top every day, or gossiping (slandering) every day–that’s not nice. That’s a lie.

You may not be able to resolve those problems by cutting off a hand, and I doubt Jesus was hoping any of us would cut off a hand or cut out an eye, but you need to cut off something: friends, job, lies from the modern gospels … something!

Get free. We have changed the gospel, so it lacks the power that Paul’s Gospel had. Our gospel only sometimes reveals the righteousness of God from faith to faith, so we turn the New Testament on its head, claiming it says things it does not say, in order to excuse the lack of power.

We need to repent, go back to saying what the apostles say said, like “add to your faith” and “walk worthy” so that you can walk with Jesus in white and not have your name blotted out of the Book of Life.

The thought will frighten the socks off us, but if we lament, and mourn, and weep it will do us good because it will motivate us to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. It will motivate us to “pursue” holiness, rather than claim we have it even while we are living unrighteously, so that we may see the Lord.

Note to self: I owe people some references from the early Christians on this matter.

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Overcomers: What Are We Overcoming and What Are We Living For?

Posted on 10/15/2013 by Paul Pavao

Yesterday I met a boy, Johnny, for the second time. The first time was several years ago. He has been burned over his entire body. The last time I met the sister who plucked him from the fire like a burning brand, not without significant injuries to herself. (Story as told by mom)

Obviously, I haven’t been through anything like he’s been through, but I did go through enough in the cancer ward at Vanderbilt to know some questions to ask. Johnny can’t blink. How does he keep his eyes wet so that they aren’t exceptionally painful all the time? I could watch him using what’s left of his hands, and I could see his happy demeanor. I wondered how much of his feet he had—he was wearing boots—and how hard it is to walk.

It can’t be too hard for him to walk. He did splits for us, getting much lower than I could get (and I’m pretty flexible for a middle-aged man). It was another kid, whose name I don’t remember, who freaked us out with his attempt at doing the splits. When he couldn’t get further, he bent his knees to the floor, which just should not have been possible. Everyone groaned and turned their heads away.

Anyway, I’m way off subject.

What promises, what qualities of life, did Johnny lose by being burned over 95% of his body at the age of four?

It depends.

It depends on whether you’re a Christian …

Wait, no. It depends on whether you’re a Bible believer or not.

Our Bodies and Our Dreams

We have to live in our bodies, but they are not on our side.

  • “Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death!” (Rom. 7:24)
  • “I discipline my body and bring it under subjection, lest having preached to others, I myself might be found disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:27)
  • “So, then, brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. If, however, by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, then you will live.” (Rom. 8:12-13)
  • “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Gal. 5:24)

I could go on for a long time. There are a lot of verses like that.

We have our dreams. We want to grow up, make our mark in this world, get a good job, get married, be comfortable, retire without poverty, etc.

God has his dreams. God dreams that we will climb up on the altar and present our bodies a living sacrifice, which the apostle Paul seemed to think was just a “reasonable” thing to do (Rom. 12:1).

Johnny has had some of his dreams—along with his hands, ears, hair, and almost all his skin—taken away.

Certainly, any dreams he had of a comfortable, easy life are gone.

Is that a loss? Or is it a head start over the rest of us?

Our hope is to be born with all our limbs and no damage to our brain, get through school without a broken neck, go to college, get a job, get married, move into a nice home in a suburb or on a farm, never go hungry, retire with a nest egg, and send our kids on the same path.

The American Dream.

God’s hope is that we will be exactly what he wants us to be (see links above), that we would enter his kingdom through many troubles (Acts 14:22), that we would become perfect through trials that we have traversed with joy (Jam. 1:2-4), and that we would be filled with hope by many tribulations (Rom. 5:3-4).

Jesus hopes that we will hate our souls in this world so much that we would fall into the ground and die. In this way he hopes that we will never be alone and that by hating our souls in this world, we will keep them eternally in the next age. (Jn. 12:24)

My little children, do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 Jn. 2:15)

Can We Really Do This?

Teachings like this take my breath away. They terrify me. “My brothers, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment” (Jam. 3:1).

I confess I have loved the world in many ways. I pray that it is true that those ways become less and less each day. I remind myself daily of two things:

  1. Sin doesn’t have power over me. In obedience to Paul’s command, I have chalked it up as true that I am dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:14,11).
  2. I get up every day with a clean slate because his mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23). I don’t even have to wait until morning because if I stay in the light, Jesus’ blood cleanses me all the time (1 Jn. 1:7).

Let’s be awesome for our Redeemer! His power in us is great!Let’s be holy as he is holy because it is not with silver and gold that we are redeemed, but by the precious blood of our King, like a lamb without even one spot or blemish (1 Pet. 1:16,19).

We can’t climb these heights alone, which is why I press so hard for a restoration of the idea of the church as a family, the household of God that we can join as sons and brothers and sisters, not as servants or “attendants,” sitting down for a show once per week, or even joining for ministry. We need deliverance, and it only comes from Jesus Christ, both by being attached to the head and by being exhorted—daily, saith the Lord—by the body (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4:14; Heb. 3:13).

I will add one final point, though I know this is a LOT for a blog post.

A friend told me yesterday how much he was moved by the testimony of a late-second-century Christian:

You forbid, yet commit, adulteries; we are born men only for our own wives. You punish crimes when committed; with us, even to think of crimes is to sin. You are afraid of those who are aware of what you do; we are afraid even of our own consciences, without which we cannot exist.
   Finally, from your numbers the prisons boil over, but there is no Christian there unless he is accused on account of his religion or has deserted it. (M. Felix, The Octavious)

He told me, “It’s one thing to know that we are commanded to live a certain way, but when you hear from people who are actually doing it, then the conviction really sets in.”

Compassion requires us to feel something for accident victims like Johnny. But let’s not mourn for Johnny. Let’s mourn for ourselves and our bondage to our bodies (Rom. 6:16). Let’s “lament and mourn and weep” and cry out, “Deliver us from this body of death!” until our lives are an inspiration and hope for Johnny and for all around us. (Jam. 4:9; Rom. 7:24)

Not my will, but thine be done. After all, it’s just our “logical” response to the great love and sacrifice of our Lord (Luk. 22:42 & Rom 12:1, where “reasonable” is the Greek logikos).

By the way, Johnny keeps his eyes wet by rolling them up and around under his eyelid. It gets tears on them despite his burns. Someone else with a similar issue showed him how to do that. Otherwise, he had to use a gooey, uncomfortable eyedrop. Now he doesn’t have to.

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Morning by Morning

Posted on 10/13/2013 by Paul Pavao

The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary.

He wakens me morning by morning.
He wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
—Isaiah 50:4

Is this your experience?

It is mine. If it’s not yours, I want to suggest a possible cause other than sin or hardness of heart.

Tradition.

We teach people to do morning devotions. Morning devotions are usually a good habit to have. I love to sing this song from Psalm 5 …

Give ear to my words, O LORD
Consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God.
For unto thee will I pray;
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning.
Oh, LORD, in the morning, will I direct my prayer
Unto thee and will look up. (vv. 1-3)

Rising with the name of Jesus on your lips and praise to our Father through him is a wonderful and life-transforming habit.

But if God answers, you have to stop talking.

If God is speaking, you have to stop reading.

It’s just rude not to. Try treating your spouse the opposite of that. Pour out your compliments and requests to your wife while she is trying to tell you something. “Dear, I love you. I am so glad I married you. We are out of lettuce, and I pray that you would buy some at the store so that my sandwich is better when I make my lunch. I also pray that you would keep the house clean and make my meals, and I thank you for providing that for me day in and day out. In your name. Amen.”

The only possible answer she could give is, “What is wrong with you? I’ll get the lettuce, but I need to know whether you want jelly on your toast so I can get back in the kitchen before the eggs burn.”

I’ve gotten some of my best teachings when I was trying to pray. Fortunately, I have had mentors who told me that prayer should be more about God speaking to me than about my speaking to God. So when God starts speaking, I shut up.

Why is that guy doodling on his iPad during prayer? Is that guy texting? Why would he have his iPhone out in a prayer meeting?

The iPhone is silenced. Notepad is open, and I’m typing as fast as I can, random words to help me remember what God just put on my heart.

I do that even if I’m praying for a sick person. I have lots of friends now with cancer because of my leukemia trek. There’s >a little girl down the street with bone cancer facing a second last-ditch attempt to save her life, and I cry out for her healing and strength every day. However, when God starts speaking while I’m praying for her, I still stop talking.

God knows what we have need of before we ask. He is not going to hear us for our many words, whether they are repetitive or not. If there is a burden on your heart, and crying out to God relieves that burden, then assail the throne with many words. The Holy Spirit is trying to flow for you. Don’t stop until you prevail with God. It was the fervent prayer of Elijah that brought the rain again. He had to pray seven times to get an answer, and he checked in between each prayer to see if God had responded. But if he’s talking to you, then he doesn’t want you talking to him at the same time except to get clarification on what he’s saying.

It probably sounds like I think we can hold conversations with God.

Well, in a sense, I do. I don’t think God always drops words in our spirit. Often it is unformed thoughts that he drops in our spirit. Sometimes it is just a feeling.

But just as you should cry out to God when you have a burden of prayer, letting nothing deter you (especially your own tired body or bored mind), so you should stop crying out and mull over those thoughts or that feeling that he has set in your heart. Welcome the word of God and coax the flicker into a flame that causes you to obey.

One last point.

Sometimes God wants to speak to you through the sunrise; through a chat and a hug with the little child who came down to “interrupt” your devotions.

Isn’t the purpose of a devotion to draw us closer to God? Then let’s not ignore him when he interrupts our devotions. Or let’s not even sit down for devotions if he calls to us before them.

This is my devotion this morning. I awoke with Isaiah 50:4 on my mind, and God said to me, “Give ear to my words, my son. Consider and meditate. Hearken to the voice of my cry, for to you I will speak. My voice you shall hear in the morning.”

My devotion this morning is both to God and to you. I hope there’s benefit to someone in it.

I’m still looking for a domain name for this site. All suggestions welcome!

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Do We Need Apologetics?

Posted on 10/11/2013 by Paul Pavao

This note is added after I finished post. This qualifies as a rant, but I think it as obviously true as many of the rants I have read on the internet. They’re not all true, but many rants are the most well-said articles on the internet.

I saw this quote today:

If one doesn’t think they need apologetics, one has to wonder if they have tried evangelizing lately.

Okay, I understand the idea. Here’s the problem.

Most apologetics is a bunch of nonsense, cutting up the Bible into sections, ignoring large sections of Scripture, misinterpreting a large portion of rest, and turning the whole Bible, and especially the New Testament, into a morass of contradictions, which they call “difficult” and “clear” verses.

Worse, most apologists claim to teach the historic Christian faith, and they don’t. In fact, the majority teach straight Calvinism, and there is nothing less historic than that other than symbolic sacraments/ordinances (baptism & Lord’s Supper) and salvation by faith alone (the modern reformed Reformation version).

Note: My apologies to European apologists. I am not talking about you. I’m only talking about American apologetic organizations.

The Real Church and Attending Church

No one trained in an actual church needs apologetics.

Christian organizations are not churches. The Assemblies of God. the Presbyterians, the Churches of Christ, the Baptists … they are not churches; they are organizations.

Anything you can “attend” is not a church. It’s as simple as that. You can’t attend a church, you can only join one.

Have you ever attended a family? You may attend a family reunion, and you may attend a family Christmas dinner, but no one says, “I have to attend family tonight.” A prospective wife may ask to meet her husband’s family, but she doesn’t say, “Can I attend your family with you? When is the next time you have family?”

As long as you can talk about attending church or having church, know that you are misusing the word church. The church is the family of God (1 Tim. 3:15).

Now, to be fair, the assemblies of the church are sometimes called church in the Bible, but that is rare. Surely 90% or more of the use of the word “church” in the Bible is talking about the family of God.

I mourn all the time that the family of God feels obligated to attend organizations that claim they are the church. They are travesties. A “travesty” is a caricature of the real thing. I believe “travesty” originally meant a play designed to parody something. A building owned by an organization and run by a staff with Biblical-sounding names like “pastor” and “elder” is not a church. It is an organization masquerading as the church.

They steal the loyalty Christians owe to one another and they take it to themselves.

The next time you can do something for someone, but you’re going to miss it for “church,” don’t. You can find Biblical precedent for helping other Christians–supposedly more your brother and sister than your biological family–and for encouraging, building up, and prophesying to one another. You can’t find any Biblical precedent for “attending” a speech with songs.

Look for it. It’s not there.

Secondarily (Gal. 6:10), if you’re going to miss out on helping a lost person, then skip the speech with songs, too. The Bible has tons to say about helping the poor. You’re lending to the Lord and practicing true religion! (Prov. 19:17; Jam. 1:26)

Good Pastors

What about good pastors? What about people who come to know Jesus in those Christian clubs? What about missionaries they have sent out? What about missions they do in cities among the poor?

That’s irrelevant to anything I’m saying.

I’ll thank God with you for the good things these organizations have done. I’ll sit down and listen with you to a organization’s main speaker, especially if he’s a really great teacher like Frances Chan or Mr. Platt from Birmingham or, sorry, that somewhat heretical Rob Bell.

That does not give organizations the right to masquerade as churches and make Christians forget what it’s like to live as part of the family of God.

The huge majority of Christians in the US have no idea what it’s like to be in the church. The church is so powerful that Paul called it “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). It is so able to teach the saints that Paul called it “the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). The church, together, can brush off “winds of doctrine” (Eph. 4:11-16) and, without a teacher, know what is “true and not a lie” (1 Jn. 2:27).

So many good things being done by organizations, though most still do nothing except train Christians that being a Christian means sitting in a pew once or twice a week and listening to a speech about Christianity, usually full of really bad Bible interpretation.

Really bad?

Sure, let’s start with any Protestant club  with a pastor and a board of elders. I’ll bet every such club claims to lean on the Bible alone for faith and practice.

Really?

Is it really that hard to look at the words pastor and elder in the Bible? The following teaching has been floating around Christian circles for 40 years. Pastor is only used as a verb once in the New Testament, in Eph. 4:11. Elders are mentioned repeatedly, and in Acts 20:28 and 1 Pet. 5:1-4, we are told that they pastor (shepherd) the church. So you shouldn’t have a pastor and elders. The elders are the pastors, and they come in groups (e.g. Eph. 20:17; 14:23).

That’s picky, but it’s just one brick in a wall that has hidden the church of King Jesus from us. There’s many more bricks in that wall, but the errors are not difficult to find. They are obvious.

Saying What the Apostles Say

I have a really controversial teaching that I teach somewhat often. Almost everyone objects to it. The teaching goes like this:

“If the apostles said it, and it’s now in our Bible, then I can say it, and you should say it.”

Controversial! Terrible, isn’t it? Most–really, most–Christians complain and look for refutations when I teach this.

The reason is that the teaching is a little longer than that. I  give examples. For example:

“We are justified by works and not by faith alone.”

If you never say that and can’t  conceive a situation in which you would say that, then there’s a problem with what you believe. Simple as that. That is true of any such verse.

It’s not sufficient to say, “Well, I would quote that verse, but I would then explain that it doesn’t mean what it says.”

Sorry, I reject the teaching that you understand what James meant better than James understood what James meant. If you have to change his words to “We are not justified by works, and we are not justified by faith that is alone, but we are justified by faith alone.”

There’s plenty of others, not all related to faith and works, but I know that James 2:24 is a verse that no Protestant says, ever. Well, some of the more radical Christians influenced by the Amish-Mennonites and early church movement would (most divisive people on earth, worse than Protestants), and some more radical Pentecostal groups would, too.

We need to face the reckoning that would happen to us if we became people that were unafraid to say anything Scripture says.

In 1984 I found my Christian friends so divided among one another that I made the decision to say whatever the apostles said, even if I did not know why they said it or did not agree with it. It took me years, and the help of the writings of the early church to figure out how in the world I was supposed to understand and say “by grace through faith apart from works” (Eph. 2:8) and “by works and not by faith only” (Jam. 2:24). It gave Martin Luther so much trouble that he offered his doctor of theology cap to anyone who could reconcile Rom. 3:28 and Jam. 2:24.

The Bible as Sole Rule of Faith and Practice

I think anyone who claims that the Bible is their sole rule of faith and practice would somewhere, over the centuries of their denomination, figure out that in the Bible, the church is led by a group of elders who pastor God’s flock.

I think anyone who claims that the Bible is their sole rule of faith and practice would somewhere figure out that there are a lot of verses they never quote and never would quote unless they were denying the truth of those verses.

I think anyone who claims that the Bible is their sole rule of faith and practice and who says “faith alone” almost every day and at almost every songs-and-speech meeting would at some point notice that there’s only one occurrence of the phrase in the Bible, and it says, “not by faith alone.”

I remember when I got saved. I knew nothing of Protestant Christianity. I was 21, and I was pretty ignorant of the Bible except the Gospels. Reading them had a lot to do with my becoming a Christian.

I was told that Protestants just do what the Bible says, unlike Roman Catholics, who lean on tradition.

As a naive young man, I was sure that meant I was going to read about Sunday morning services with three songs, an offering, and a sermon. I was sure that I was going to read that Wednesday nights were for Bible studies or business meetings or other things that didn’t fit into Sunday morning. I was sure that I was going to read about Sunday school and training union.

The idea that the Protestants go by the Bible alone is bunch of BS. It’s amazing they have the audacity to claim it.

And if you’re offended by that, then your claim to go by the Bible alone is also BS. The Bible has nothing to say about words that inherently evil in and of themselves unless they are the names of false gods. American tradition says that stringing the wrong four letters in a row is automatically a sin, not the Scriptures.

Corrupt/filthy communication should not come out of our mouths. However, if we are actually depending on the Bible as our sole rule of faith and practice, then filthy means talking about murder and adultery positively, things which should not even be mentioned among the saints. Filthy does not mean stringing four letters together into a “cuss” word. The Bible talks about cursing, not cussing. It would do us good to learn what cursing is and avoid it because it happens all the time among Christians. “I can’t believe he did that. I hope he wrecks his car on the way home. Teach him a lesson.”

Cussing

I don’t cuss as a matter of course. It’s disrespectful to the people you’re with. To me, if I casually cuss with someone, I am telling them, “I don’t consider you very important. I don’t think you’re intelligent and well-mannered. I don’t think you know how to speak the English language very well, so rather than use actual adjectives, I’m going to throw in low class, hoodlum words. Obviously, I think you don’t care much about life and are purposeless, and, as such, you’re mostly using up oxygen and resources on this earth.”

That’s what I think cussing says. So why did I “cuss” above?

To take a swipe at tradition, and because it was hard to find a word that would convey that the claim of Protestants to use the Bible as their sole or only rule for faith and practice is ludicrous. I think BS conveyed the idea better than ludicrous.

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Evolution: Fossil Fish Has Oldest Jaw

Posted on 10/08/2013 by Paul Pavao

This post is based on an ABC news report. The reason it is important, at least to me, is not because of the find but because of what it says about scientific reasoning.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, fish known as Placoderms had armoured plates and dominated the oceans. For years, the world’s top evolutionary scientists thought Placoderms died out and then somehow modern fish evolved.

That’s not a very satisfying answer, is it? “… and then somehow modern fish evolved.”

Scientists get accused of a conspiracy to foist evolution on us all the time, and usually by people with a profound ignorance of science and evolution both. They wish there was a conspiracy, but they’ve put no effort into finding out.

Science is a lot more honest than its slanderers. It settles for “somehow” when somehow is all it has.

How easy would it be for this supposed conspiracy to lie to its purposely uneducated opponents and say that Placoderms are the obvious ancestors of modern fish? That’s what the opposers of evolution accuse them of doing.

They aren’t, however. Instead, they are looking at the evidence and saying, “Geez, Louise, I can’t find anything that links Placoderms to modern fish. There are just not enough similarities. It looks like this class went extinct.”

Their honesty and patience have now been rewarded by the 419-million-year-old Entelognathus, a candidate for the ancestor of modern fish AND Placoderms. Very cool.

Missing Links/Transitional Forms

An oft-repeated attack on evolution is that there are no transitional forms.

That has never been true, ever at any time. Charles Darwin came up with his theory because of transitional forms currently living. He did say that he expected the fossil record to become more complete and turn up more transitional forms, but the very basis of his “dangerous idea” was the continuity of life that he saw as a naturalist.

Here we have one more transitional form to add to the thousands that have turned up in the 154 years since On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection was published. In fact, it is likely that the transitional forms, the “missing links,” that have been found in the last 10 years number in the thousands. They are certainly in the hundreds.

Some of the most exciting have been fossils understood to be ancestors of birds, called Maniraptorans. New classes, orders, and families are constantly being discovered, and this is an exciting time to be a scientist. The more information we have on fossils and on their ancestry and geography, the better we know where to look. Tiktaalik, for example, an incredible fish-to-amphibian find, was the result of precision focusing on a time period and location based on previously accumulated knowledge.

Okay, my next post, which I will write now for publishing tomorrow, will touch on another scientific discovery which will help explain why a radical, committed Christian teacher like me would be willing to embrace evolution with all the Bible controversies it raises.

 

 

 

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