Echoes in our hearts

Here's a wonderful article from Christianity Today that echoes much with the convictions God has placed in our hearts these recent few years... Enjoy!

Jesus Doesn't Meet Our Needs

"Jesus doesn't meet our needs; he rearranges them," said William H. Willimon, and quoted by Al Mohler in his blog today titled "The Problems of Preaching to Felt Needs." On top of the nice quote from Willimon, I really like how Dr. Mohler explained very nicely the three flaws. I would very much recommend reading this post. Strong words are needed to reveal deep sins.

What Does God Promise, Really?

This week's TIME magazine has a cover story on "Does God Want Us to Be Rich?" and Al Mohler responded to the story with some comments on his blog. Most of the Christians I know (including myself of course) would probably say no to the Prosperity Theology if we were asked what we think, but a closer examination of our daily inner thoughts and activities would likely reveal that we are actually not that far from believing in it, or its many derivatives. Our physical, emotional, and psychological needs are so real in our daily lives that we tend to be driven by them, to such a degree that we can lead ourselves into believing in a distorted gospel in which God wants and promises to meet our every need. Our obvious need is money, lots of it. Others are health, jobs, family, and so on...

Here I'd like to make a list of some additional questions we sometimes find ourselves asking:
1. Does God want us to be healthy?
2. Does God want us to have a good or high paying job?
3. Does God want us to have a boyfriend or girlfriend?
4. Does God want us to marry a physically attractive or compatible spouse?
5. Does God want us to attend the best college?
6. Does God want us to have a good and healthy family?
7. Does God want us to be at a good church?
8. Does God want us to be stress free and happy?
9. Does God want us to have good sex in a marriage?

What does God really promise? Does John 10:10 include all these things? We all know that God promises Himself, in His Son. But what good is having God Himself but without those nine things listed above? When we're in pain, we often don't need God, we need to be delivered from our pain, we need good health. When we're single and lonely, we naturally think we need a mate, a good-looking one, not God whom we can't even see. And God, being loving as He is, should, we would think, be happy and willing to give us what we need!?

It's hard not to let our immediate needs define us and shape our image and understanding of God, and this is why we, as broken sinful humans, constantly need God's infinite mercy in opening our eyes to His greater glory and overwhelming us with it. And His glory is seen in His Son, in whom we all supposedly need to rest and be completely satisfied. Lord have mercy, lots of it.

T4G

We recently discovered the Together for the Gospel Blog/Ministry/Conference hosted by Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, C. J. Mahaney, and Albert Mohler. Andy purchased the 7 mp3 messages for the main sessions given at the 2006 Conference and I have been listening to the powerful messages given by these four men plus guest speakers John MacArthur, John Piper, and R. C. Sproul. Even though the targeted audience of the conference is mainly pastors and ministers of God's Word, I am enjoying every word spoken by these wonderful messengers of God, for when Truth is preached faithfully, the power penetrates to the soul no matter what sphere of life one is in. I pray for God's continuing use of these men and their ministries in this generation where human wisdom and philosophies have so often replaced the gospel on the pulpit.

Go on up, you baldhead!--by Andy

2 Kings 2:23-25 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible, and those who have seen me would understand why (or you can just look at the picture and you would know). The first time I ran across this passage, besides my natural affinity toward the story, two things came to mind: 1) It was weird that something like that was recorded in the Bible (for what purpose?), and 2) Why did a prophet of God cause such senseless killing of 42 innocent kids? (worse than modern day road rage). Well, I got the first question cleared while taking a class on hermeneutics and having to write a paper on it a few years back, but I am still chewing on the second one.

As I have been going through the book 2 Kings, I've come to find the prophet Elisha more and more interesting (maybe I should do a post on this), but I have also found lots of murders and killings recorded in the book. For example, I've just read 19:35, where the author said that "the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp." And it all happened in just one night! That's a lot of people killed, in light of how much our nation, and the world, has been mourning over the deaths caused by recent events like 9/11, the tsunami, Katrina, and the Iraq war. Many religious people including Christian pastors have done their duty to "defend" God and clear him of any responsibility in the deaths of these recent events, but how would they explain why God sent two bears to maul 42 kids just because they made fun of the bald prophet and wiped out 185 thousand men just because they were enemies of his chosen people Israel? Unlike the recent events, these two passages left no doubt as to who was responsible for those deaths.

More and more chewing seems to lead me to the same conclusion that Job expressed, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." (Job 1:21) Or James said it in another way, "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14) We usually hear religious people say that "life is precious" as if every life deserves to be living and respected. Either God didn't hold the same view or He had a very soft spot for baldies. If He could do that to 42 kids, imagine what else He could do. God caused millions of deaths in the Bible, and boldly claimed responsibility for them (I think He even drowned the whole earth once). He needs no defenders. Job and his friends learned that lesson, and Job said of God in the end, "I know that you can do all things...Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know...Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:2-6) I've done much worse than those kids, and the Assyrians, why am I still alive? God loves baldies? Such grace and mercies, too wonderful for me to ever know. Maybe I should be chewing on that instead?!

My Helplessness--by Andy

Yesterday, I found myself sitting in a Chinese-speaking church service in Hong Kong reading through John 6 while the pastor went on and on with something I later found out was just a story of some guy who lived a meaningless life. The story must have been captivating judging from the pastor's story-telling enthusiasm and the audience's attention, but since I couldn't understand a single word and had nothing else to put my mind to, I read and re-read John 6 until the service was over. During my reading, however, I occasionally looked up at the pastor and the congregation and wondered what the pastor was talking about. As I noticed that he was not preaching from the scripture passage and that the congregation was not reading from their bible, my thoughts wandered back to an often visited topic, that of the dreadful helplessness of the sinful state of man.

A verse in this chapter made me think. Right after Jesus gave the Jewish audience the bold claim, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty," He continued in verse 36, "But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe." In the past, I usually skipped over this little verse that was overshadowed by the big one right before it. This time, it caught my attention because it reminded me of something that a friend of mine, a gentle and humble person who grew up in a Christian family, told me one time. I couldn't recall his exact words, but what I understood was that even if God were to stand in front of him, he would not believe and would turn and run the other way. This verse also reminded me of another person I know, whom I ran into just the day before, who is well acquainted with Christianity and yet does not believe the truthfulness of its claims. Is believing in Jesus a choice for them, and they chose to reject? Is deciding for Jesus within their capabilities?

Before I became a believer, I used to think that if God were to show Himself right in front of me, that would have been enough convincing for me to become a Christian. Then after I became one, I was taught to believe that salvation was just a choice and I had the power to choose. God was standing on one side and Evolution the other, both with their arms open, and all I had to do was to pick one. And I made the final wise choice and picked the one that would give my life meaning and eventually usher me into heaven. This verse 6:36, however, made me realize that I am as helpless as my two friends, as well as the Jewish audience two thousand years ago, when it comes to choosing to believe. Were the choice up to me, I think I would also run the other way if God were to show Himself in front of me. Or even worse, I might just spit in His face and throw a few cuss words at Him before I run away in spite and protest.

The Jews in Jesus's audience believed in Moses who gave their forefathers manna in the desert. And being also decendents of father Abraham, they thought they were in with God. They thought salvation was just a choice they could make on their own by observing the Mosaic law. But Jesus showed up and told them that He came down from heaven to be the real bread for only those whom the Father has enabled (v65), has chosen (v70),has drawn to Himself (v44), and has given to His son (v37), so that they who eat of this bread will receive salvation. Those who did not believe were offended at His claim to be the bread of life. Jesus then told those who were offended, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." I realized only recently that I came to Jesus only because God has already enabled me and drawn me to Himself.

I feel so helpless when I think about the fact that even the smallest little act, the act of believing, was impossible for me to do on my own. If I could not perform such a simple mental act, how would I ever be able to claim as my own any other worthy acts in life, whether mental or physical? I thank God for saving me when I could not, and I pray that Jesus lives in me and works through me as I live.

Turning Their Hearts Back Again--by Andy

I was reading 1 Kings 18 today, the chapter on the well known story about the confrontation between Elijah, a prophet of God, and the 450 prophets of Baal on mount Carmel in front of a large audience of Israelites, including Israel King Ahab. The story has been one of my favorites and I have always enjoyed reading it. Each time, I would try to picture the scenes as the plot unfolds, and the ending would always leave me with a good feeling as if I was part of the winning team in a great battle between good and evil.

What caught my attention this time, however, was Elijah's little prayer as it came to his turn to call on his God. I don't know Elijah's exact prayer up there on top of Mount Carmel, but what the author recorded in verses 36 and 37 was, "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." What specifically touched me was the part about God turning hearts. It then dawned on me that the message of this whole action-packed heroic story may have been about God's wanting to turn the hearts of His people Israelites back to Him, away from the idols that they have been led to worship by king Ahab. As I was thinking these thoughts, the story about Elijah and the widow in the previous chapter 17 came back to mind. After having received miraculous provision of food for herself and her son and especially after the resurrection of her son, the widow said to Elijah, as recorded in verse 24, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth." This response, I thought, was similar to the response Elijah was asking for on Mount Carmel--a change of heart. God changed the widow's heart in the town of Zarephath, and He changed the Israelites' hearts on Mount Carmel. All of a sudden, my hero Elijah, and other characters in the story, began to fade into the background, and the true Hero began to emerge. What I had always thought a juicy battle between the good and bad prophets now became a merciful act of changing hearts by a kind and gracious God.

And a changed heart is what I truly and really need when I search deep within myself. I remember reading Jer 17:9 where it says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" I am humbled by and grateful to the God who could see and understand my deceitful heart and yet chose to give me the cure for it. I thank Him for turning my heart back to Him and giving me a new life of faith in His Son Jesus Christ who died for me on Calvary.