Losing Our Religion: The Growth of the 'Nones'

Here is a recent article from NPR about the increasing number of people who no longer affiliate themselves with any religion. There have been several articles written about this Pew Research study regarding the increasing 'none' population, and thought I would finally post one here.

I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts regarding the article and this steady trend in America.

Check it out: Losing Our Religion: The Growth of 'Nones'

Personally, I do not think this is a bad thing. For one, I think this trend allows for a deeper distinction between mere 'religion' and authentic Christianity. As the article points out, I believe one of the main reasons for this trend away from religion is that people (especially younger) are tired of the cold, irrelevant 'religion' pushed by older generations. It is a rebellion of sorts. For many, it is a rebellion against a religion that stifles humans by imposing moral agendas and political platforms. In this sense, those rebelling often see organized religion as nothing more than a man-made obstacle to progress. I would agree with some aspects of this rebellion, specifically, that it is not a good thing when Christianity primarily becomes a moral movement or a political platform. Sadly, many people see Christianity as nothing more than moral conservatives, and for that reason, many people do not want to associate with Christianity.

The problem here is that what most people think Christianity is (mostly through the media), is not authentic Christianity. I don't think this rebellion is that bad because it really does open up a door to show people, in word and deed, what the Gospel actually is. It is so much more than a moral system. It is so much more than organized religion. Rather, it is the story of all humanity that addresses our deepest problem; namely our human condition. It takes the reality of our brokenness, pain, insatiable lives, and it puts it into the only context of life that makes sense. It confronts the fact that life is not what it is supposed to be. It confronts this fact, not with a political agenda, or a technique for improving our behavior. No. God confronts this fact by getting to the heart of the problem. He sent his Son to give us completely new life. He came to give us life as it was originally intended. He came that we could fulfill our innate human purpose; to know Him and be known by Him for eternity.

All I have for now are those random thoughts, but I'd love to hear what other people think about the article, or other ones like it. 

The Meaning of Grace

"What act could be more one-sidedly free and non-negotiated than one person raising another from the dead! This is the meaning of grace."
-John Piper

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved and raised up with him..."

Ephesians 2:1-6

Evening Hospitality

If you can't tell by the amount of quotes I'm posting from Zack Eswine's, Sensing Jesus, I love this book and recommend it to everyone. The last couple posts have been about the cycles of everyday life; the seasons of a day, including the morning, noon day, evening, and the night watch. Zack does an amazing job at describing the mundane ways in which these daily cycles are really ways in which we, as finite human beings, are to relate and experience God. Regarding the evening, Zack writes:

"'The day is over now.' The teacher and teaching come to a close. It is time for good and a bit of rest in the company of others who are also at rest and could likewise use a bite to eat. The limits of our food do not prevent but only remind us that our true portion is Jesus and that he will prove sufficient to rest us and nourish us amid the company of the evening. We needn't take our work with us. Workless in the evening matters. In order to learn how to rest in life, we need the spiritual grace to set down our work and to rest when an ordinary evening arrives. An inability to do this where we are in our ordinary place on a given and routine evening will render it nearly impossible to cultivate a life of stability 'out there' amid the chatter and frenzy. 

By 'hospitality,' I have in mind extending the kindness and protection of a peaceable presence to our neighbors. It is kind because it takes our neighbors bodily and soul needs into account and provides them a room-giving acceptance and practical sustenance. Hospitality is also protective because remaining hospitable toward another means that we do not transgress, misuse, or consume them. We allow them to take up company in our presence in such a way that they know that we will not use them to satisfy our lust, mandate that they act as if they are not tired or in need of nourishment, or require them to take the heat for the afternoon moods that we are carrying with us and misplacing on them. 

Grace and wisdom, are of course, necessary evening friends. But hospitality seems to take a front seat in the evening. Blessing, rest, good food, friendship, acceptance, honesty, freedom from misuse, reclining at rest at the table prepared for us-the welcomed reward from a long day of solid work. The prayers of thanksgiving rise from our lips, and we raise our hands in gratitude to God for his faithfulness through the day. The morning teaches us to sing. The afternoon teaches us to preserve. The evening teaches us to enjoy the blessing of ordinary goodnesses and to give thanks to God for the sacred boredom of mundane blessings that we can count."

Something to consider this evening.


Zack Eswine, Sensing Jesus: Life and Ministry As a Human Being (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2013), 78-79.

A Brave New World

A couple nights ago, I finished reading Aldous Huxley's classic novel, Brave New World. Huxley's work is a fictional, yet prophetical glimpse at the future of society, in which the world is a complete dystopia. My goal here is not to give a detailed summary of the novel (though it was fantastic), but rather to point out a couple quotes. To read a more detailed summary, click HERE, otherwise, here is an extremely short explanation to give you some context.

In Huxley's dystopia world, everything in society is conditioned for the sake of complete stability and comfort. Humans aren't conceived by men and women, but are produced in a factory. From their very beginning, all humans are conditioned (by genetically engineering) to exist in one of 5 social castes. Each person is conditioned to do their assigned task with complete contentment and consistency. In other words, humans are deconditioned to think, feel pain, or experience life. This is all done in the name of stability and happiness. So, a person may be genetically conditioned to be a mindless factory worker, who works his 9-5, then spends the rest of his day enjoying a "soma holiday" (universal drug everybody takes to escape reality and experience euphoria), but, he is completely content, because he has been conditioned not to desire anything else. There is a complete escape from pain. There is a complete escape from feeling for that matter.

What struck me as I read Huxley's book was just how accurate some of his conclusions were regarding humans. In his dystopia, we are not oppressed by an evil power; quite the contrary actually. We willingly choose a society of lifelessness, so long as we don't feel anything and can mindlessly enjoy artificial entertainment. Do we do the same thing today? Is our tendency to pursue stability, comfort, and artificial happiness at the expense of truth, beauty, and life? Here is a quote from one of the antagonists,  World Controller, Mustapha Mond, as he decides whether to have a certain scientific article published or not. In his opinion, the ideas in the article were dangerous to the stability of society.

"It was the sort of idea that might easily decondition the more unsettled minds among the higher castes-make them lose their faith in happiness as the Sovereign Good and take to believing, instead, that the goal was somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge."

The line about the purpose of life being the maintenance of well-being particularly strikes a chord with me. It seems that most people spend their entire lives pursuing this sense of well-being. We chase a well-being that is completely devoid of what it means to be human. We give our lives to the purpose of ultimate comfort, entertainment, and enjoyment, while we fail to realize the joy for which we were created. We make personal happiness the "Sovereign Good", while failing to realize that our very conception of happiness is dull; it is black and white compared to the vivid stream of color that true happiness presents. We fail to see the true purpose for which we were created and the true happiness for which we were made. Our purpose is not to attain a state of well-being that we may escape pain and live in happiness; our purpose is to know God and enjoy Him forever. 

The Story of God

An incredible spoken word piece by Matt Papa. He does an excellent job of capturing the storyline of all human history and connecting it to this present moment. As he says, "it's a story like no other, it's a movement you can't undo."

Live Forever

Admittedly, I am not the most aesthetically astute person out there. Nonetheless, I wanted to share this song on here because I believe it exudes beauty and captures the true essence of life, and, to go one step further, life in Christ. In particular, my favorite verse is the second one, which goes"

Some people say faith is a childish game

Play on, children, like it's Christmas day

Sing me a song, sing me a melody

Sing out loud, you're a symphony

I don't think these lyrics are especially profound or extraordinarily magnificent. Rather, they are pretty plain and simple in nature. But, it is the simplicity of these lyrics, along with the music wherein its beauty lies. So, how do these words capture what life in Christ is like.

I love the imagery of the children playing on Christmas day. I picture the pure joy a child has in waking up that morning; the excitement they have in running down the stairs. The exceeding elation they experience in opening up the presents given to them. There is a sense of newness. With the dawning of that new day, there is a new sense of life.

Moving onto the next couple lines, I think they also capture this sense of life. The whole 2 lines, "sing me a song, sing me a melody, sing out loud, you're a symphony' communicate to me that life is meant to be more than a methodical drum beat. Life is not meant to be lived alone, quiet, and without joy. It is meant to be lived out loud, with others, experiencing and enjoying all the intricacies that exist in creation.

And I think that is what true life is supposed to be like. It isn't meant to be lived in fear, but in freedom. It isn't meant to be dull, it is meant to be new, fresh, exciting, and full of joy. This is what Jesus came to give us. This song, and most specifically this 2nd verse, leaves me with the feeling that life is supposed to be vibrant. The gospel is the good news that Jesus has come to restore us to true life and to make our lives vidid and vibrant once again. Jesus brings us out of darkness and into the light. He turns our black and white pictures into a colorful masterpiece. He turns our lives from a banal drum beat into a symphony.

Some people say believing, following, and giving your life to a guy who died over 2,000 years ago is foolish. But, having experienced this joy, having been brought from darkness into the glorious vibrancy of life in Christ, I cannot help but play on like it's Christmas day.

Listen to the song. Think about life. Enjoy.

The Intention of Jesus

A rough draft of a paper I wrote answering the question, "What was the intention of Jesus?"

What did Jesus intend to accomplish in his first-century earthly ministry?

This paper holds that the intention of Jesus’ first century earthly ministry was nothing less than to restore life. Admittedly, a two-word answer for such an open ended and weighty question may seem a bit simplistic and incomplete. Throughout all four Gospels, Jesus makes numerous claims as to his intentions; and many of them are quite different. How can we boil the intentions of Jesus down to just two words? However, as this paper will show, when all of what Jesus did and said in his first century earthly ministry is taken and understood collectively, it rightly fits under the over arching intention to restore life.  This can be seen in the grand narrative of Scripture, as well as in Jesus’ own words and actions.

                  Before we examine Jesus’ words and actions, it is first fitting to define our terms. In saying that Jesus intended to “restore”, I am proposing that Jesus came to reclaim or bring back a certain something to an originally intended condition. In other words, Jesus’ aim is to bring things back to the way they are supposed to be. He is reclaiming what has been lost. In this instance, the certain something is “life”.  Therefore, Jesus came to reclaim or bring back life to its intended, God given condition and purpose.

                  To further understand Jesus intentions to “restore life”, we must go back and ask ourselves what were God’s original intention s for life, and what happened? The creation account in Genesis captures several significant features that help us to understand what true “life” is. Primarily, humans were created to be God’s image bearers (Genesis 1:27). This tells us several things. First, it lays out the Creator-creature distinction. Humans are not God. Rather, for our benefit, we (as God’s creatures) were created to live under God’s righteous and loving reign. As God’s image bearers, “life” consists of several roles and relationships; the most central being our vertical relationship with our God. Humans were created to know and be known by their Heavenly Creator. We were made to be worshippers of the one True and Living God. In addition, under God’s reign “life” is meant to consist of thriving and unbroken relationships with others. Our last role is one of steward. As God’s image bearers, “life” consists of having dominion over and stewarding God’s glorious creation (Genesis 2:15). Therefore, “life” as God originally intended it to be consists of three relationships. First and most importantly, we were meant to live under God’s righteous and loving reign wherein we know God and are known by him in an unhindered fashion. Further, this vertical relationship was meant to define our horizontal relationships with God’s creation, both among other image bearers (humans) and also among His creation.  To describe the condition wherein these three image-bearing relationships are harmoniously thriving under God’s reign, the Old Testament used the word ‘shalom’. Human beings were meant to live in ‘shalom’ where there is a deep contentment, peace, and wholeness.

                  Yet, as the story goes, this “life” which was the intended condition for God’s creation was lost when Adam and Eve fell. The result was utter brokenness existing in all three of our image bearing relationships. Rather than living under God’s righteous rule and reign, humans choose to live under their own self-autonomy. Because of this, all facets of life are broken; nothing exists as it’s meant to. Strife dominates our relationships with others, false gods control the affections of our hearts, sickness and death rule our physical bodies, and stewarding creation is strenuous. In essence, as we rebel against God’s eternal, righteous, loving rule and reign over our hearts, shalom is lost; all of life is broken.

                   It is into this context that Jesus must be introduced. Throughout the ages, there was an expectation among God’s people that one day He would send someone to restore this righteous and loving reign among his people, thus restoring life. Jesus was this Messiah. Although God’s ethnic people (the Jews) often had a misunderstanding of what God’s Messiah would actually accomplish, it is clear as we look at the grand narrative of the Old Testament that Jesus in fact is the Messiah who would “restore life”.

                  Viewing Jesus through this lens, it is possible to make sense of his actions as well as the numerous claims he makes regarding his intentions. For example, Jesus’ central message in his earthly ministry was the good news that the Kingdom of God was at hand (Mark 1:15). In essence, Jesus was declaring that He came to reclaim God’s rule and reign over His creation.  In doing so, Jesus invites human beings to come under his loving authority, in order that their image bearing may be restored to the fullness for which it was created.  Jesus’ came to earth preaching repentance, since in order to enter God’s Kingdom, we must first relinquish our self-autonomy. Along with Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God, Jesus demonstrated his authority both in his teachings and actions. His teachings were in direct contrast to our misconceptions of what “life” is supposed to be and were often aimed at rewiring the ways in which the Fall had distorted our worldviews. His actions often consisted of physical healings and casting out demons, which not only demonstrated his authority over the physical laws and evil powers, but also goes to show the breadth and depth of restoration Jesus aimed at accomplishing. Jesus’ intentions weren’t solely aimed at forgiving sins, or merely teaching people some good life lessons. Rather, Jesus’ intentions were to holistically restore all of life. His intentions were to reverse all the facets of the Fall and to bring the loving rule of God into all areas of life. Jesus came to bring back a total sense of image bearing shalom.

                  This brings us to the pinnacle of Jesus’ ministry. We have seen that Jesus’ came to reclaim God’s rule and reign in the hearts of men to once again bring them into a right relationship with Him. He came proclaiming this good news of the Kingdom, teaching, and healing every disease and affliction (Matthew 4:23). His ministry was holistic, and intended to reverse the multi faceted effects of the Fall. But, how did Jesus do this? The pinnacle of Jesus’ earthly ministry was indeed his death and resurrection, by which he accomplished His intentions to restore life. Jesus knew his entire life was ultimately leading up to the time when we would die as a ransom (Matthew 20:28) and then rise (Mark 8:31). In order to restore life, Jesus had to die a substitutionary death in our place wherein he would absorb the full weight of the Fall. He took upon himself the separation and brokenness that existed between us and our Creator. Further, Jesus resurrected from the grave, thus conquering the power of Sin. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we are effectively able to have new life. His death and resurrection are the ultimate remedy to the multi faceted curse of the Fall. In his earthly ministry, Jesus’ intentions were to come that we may have life (John 10:10). He came to reclaim what was lost  (Luke 19:10) and restore what was broken. In his life, Jesus proclaimed this good news of God’s Kingdom and demonstrated it in word and deed. However, the ultimate way Jesus accomplished his intention to restore life, was through his substitutionary death and life giving resurrection. 

Ministry in Chicago's West Side

Saw this on JT's blog. Great video of Brian Dye, who lives and ministers in the West Garfield neighborhood on Chicago's west side. Love what this guy is doing.

What is a Disciple?

What is a disciple? I think Dallas Willard offers a helpful definition. 

"A person who by the power of the Spirit has arranged their life under the life and teachings of Jesus"

A couple quick things that I like about this definition. 

1. A person does not become a disciple by their own power. It is God's gracious initiative. It is by the Spirit's power that we grow. 
2. Discipleship is arranges your LIFE. We have tendency to compartmentalize our spiritual life and our normal life, or our church life and our during the week life. Discipleship flows into all areas of life. It is all encompassing. It is an overarching identity. 
3. At the heart of discipleship is being under the life of Jesus. We are disciples by virtue of our union with Christ. As a disciple, our new life is found in Christ.  We are united to his death, wherein our old self is dead, and united in his resurrection, where we now have new life. If you want to see this. Read Paul's letters (especially Ephesians). 

Fight Club

Here is a great excerpt from  Jonathan Dodson's, "Gospel Centered Discipleship." In this excerpt, he is referring to the motion picture, "Fight Club", written by Chuck Palahnuik.

"Fight Club does depict the struggle to recover identity in a post-modern, media saturated world. It shows us that the world is charged with bogus images of what it means to be truly human. In underground fight clubs, groups of men meet after hours in basements and back alleys to fight one another barefoot, bare chested, and bare fisted. It's a bloody ordeal.

In a speech just prior to a fight club, Tyler Durden charges the men, 'We are the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no great war, or great depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised by television to believe that one day we'll all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars-but we won't.'

In this speech, Durden pinpoints something that should confront Christians every day-the great depression of a life lived apart from a noble cause. Christians are tempted daily to believe the empty promises of the millionaire, movie god, and rock star lifestyles. We are tempted to believe that if we had a lithe more money, power, notoriety, respect, beauty, influence, or success we would be truly happy. We need to fight to believe in something better. Palahnuik's Fight Club was an attempt to fill a void left by the Church. In an interview he comments, 'I started to recognized that, in a way, support groups were becoming the new church of our time-a place where people will go and confess their very worst aspects of their lives and seek redemption and community with outer people in a way that people used to go to church...'

God is calling us to recover and redeem this confessional, redemptive, and communal role of the church. He is calling us out of our depressive, self-centered lives into the rewarding fight of faith, out of the great depression into a great spiritual war."

What is Your Drift?

"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward holiness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." 
-D.A. Carson-


In this quote, I think Carson touches on a very important trend I've noticed within myself, and also among Christians in general. The trend is this: Grace and disciplined effort are opposed to each other. I'm afraid we have created a dichotomy between resting in God's grace and grace-driven effort as if the two are mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, a lot of times I find myself drifting into this mentality that mistakes laziness with true gospel rest. 


Yes, the gospel does save us from having to justify ourselves with our own works and from having to prove our selves day in and day out. However, it also saves us to something.  It frees us from the slavery of sin and of self-justification and, in turn, frees us to pursue righteousness. The gospel frees us to life as it was meant to be lived. 


In Christ, we are no longer slaves to drift into compromise, disobedience, and lifelessness. In Christ, we are free to drift towards God. We are free to experience his grace in such a way that we are driven to action. God's grace is the empowering force behind our discipline and it is our motivation. With that being said, diving deeper into in the gospel and the union we have with Christ necessarily results in actively sharing in this life. 


Further, as Carson points out, our default gravitation is not towards holiness. Our default mode is to sink deeper and deeper into self-worship. Therefore, we must run to the gospel everyday and look to God's grace as the source of our effort in order to live this life. It is a mistake to call this legalism or unnecessary effort. God longs for his children to live in him. He longs for his children to experience the power of his resurrection.  He longs for his children to freely obey him. We only find this in the gospel of God's grace. When we taste of this, only then will we be in hot pursuit of righteousness. 

Easter Quote

"The proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well. And as a Christian, I say this not with the easy optimism of one who has never known a time when all was not well but as one who has faced the Cross in all its obscenity as well as in all its glory, who has known one way or another what it is like to live separated from God. In the end, his will, not ours, is done. Love is the victor. Death is not the end. The end is life. His life and our lives, through him, in him. Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary ever dared to dream. Christ our Lord is risen."

Frederick Buechner

I Counsel You to Buy From Me

"For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see."

Revelation 3:17-18

Sometimes I wonder if these words are true of us; especially those of us in the Western Church. In these verses, Jesus is rebuking the Church at Laodicea. He is speaking to those who think they have it all together; to those who claim to have the answers; to those who boast of their programs; to those who outwardly appear to be doing well; to those who glory in their own morality; to those who exalt in their parties' political correctness; to those who, because of their wealth, fail to recognize their desperate need. These words rebuke our tendency to hide behind our own wealth or sufficiency, thus avoiding Jesus as our only Savior. 

And what are we to do? Jesus counsels us to, "buy from me", in order that we may attain true wealth, that our shame may be covered, and that we may truly see. The answer is to recognize our own poverty, and repent of our own self-sufficiency, and to receive Christ. The Christian life isn't one of accumulating wealth based on how good or sufficient we are; it is recognizing our own deficiencies and poverty, repenting of them, and in turn receiving the richness of Christ, who is able to cover our shame, grant us forgiveness, and open our eyes to behold His true beauty. 

So, this morning, I am reminded, that I am poor and I need everything. Yet, I run to Christ, where I am able to buy freely from him. I run to Christ where I am able to trade my ashes for beauty, my sin for his righteousness, my crumbs for his feast, my death for his life. This is true wealth. 

And They Ate and Were Satisfied

"In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?"  And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.  And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full."

Mark 8:1-8

A couple quick thoughts on this passage:

As I read, I was struck by the crowd. Keep in mind these are real people. Four thousand people are following Jesus for three whole days. I'm sure they had jobs, things to do at home, and friends to see. Think of what it would be like to leave everything behind for three days to follow someone around on foot. Not to mention, they hadn't yet eaten during these three days. I'm sure they were tired. Yet, they were willing to follow Jesus. 

These 4,000 people weren't following Jesus out of comfort and convenience. Quite the contrary, they were following Jesus out of faith. When they were following him, they had no guarantee that he would provide a huge meal for them, thus satisfying their hunger. Yet, they followed anyways; because they had faith that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. And if Jesus is who he says he is, he's worth following. If he is the one who can bring salvation, he's worth being hungry for three days, getting blisters on your feet from walking miles, being away from the comfort of your home. 

I love verse 8, "And they ate and were satisfied". Wow! These people did not know Jesus would satisfy them: but, their faith was rewarded. I'm amazed at the provision Jesus makes for his followers. Following him wasn't easy, as these 4,000 knew. They were almost at the point of fainting! Yet, because they had faith, Jesus satisfied them, and on top of that, provided in abundance. What does this mean for us?

Doesn't Jesus call us to follow him in faith? Doesn't he say that being a true disciple of his will take you out of comfort and convenience? Doesn't he say it will be hard? Doesn't he say that he will take you places you may not want to go? Yes and Amen. And so we are called to follow Jesus as the 4,000 did. 

Further, we have the promise that Jesus will satisfy us and provide for us. Jesus called himself the 'Bread of Life', who will bring true satisfaction. He called himself 'The Life', who comes to bring true abundant life. Jesus gives assurance that he will never leave nor forsake us. Where these 4,000 didn't even have the full revelation of these promises, they still had faith. Now, we, who have God's word, and have read and heard of all that he has done, have the promise. We have the promise of the word. We know that 

he lived, died and resurrected for our salvation. We have the promise that when we follow him, though it may be hard, and may leave us to the point of fainting, Jesus will provide and satisfy us in a supernatural way. He has compassion on us and cares for us. He offers us true life in Himself, and invites us to partake in this true life by following him in faith, and trusting in him for everything. 

Relax, Eat, Drink and Be Merry

"The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do,

for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns 

and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; 

relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul 

is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God."

Luke 12:16-21

What do you say to your own soul? Are you primarily looking to store up treasures for yourself? Do you find yourself living for your own personal comfort? Do you live to 'relax, eat, drink, and be merry'. This is the wasted life, and this is the sad reality of most people in the world (especially in America). 

Everything given to us in the life is given from God, and it is given for the purpose of glorifying His name. If we are given talents, they are to be used to make His name look great. If we have money, it is meant to be handled in a way that makes God look like the ultimate treasure. This passage reminds me of the last verse of a song by Lecrae, 'Don't Waste Your Life'. 

If you're trying to figure out what to do with ya life,
If you make a lot of money hope your doin' it right,
Because the money is God’s, you better steward it right, 
You stay focused, you ain't got no ride,
Your life ain't wrapped up in what you drive,
The clothes you wear, the job you work,
The color your skin, nah you're Christian first,
People get it living for a job,
Make a little money start living for a car,
Get em a wife, a house, kids and a dog,
Then they retire, they living high on the hog,
But guess what? They didn’t ever really live at all,
To live is Christ, and that’s Paul I recall,
To die is gain and for Christ we give it all,
He's the treasure you’ll never find in a mall,
See your money, your singleness, marriage, talents, your time,
They were loaned you to show the world that Christ is divine,
That’s why its Christ in my rhymes,
That’s why its Christ all the time,
See my whole world is built around Him,
He’s the life in my lines,
I refuse to waste my life,
He’s too true to chase that ice,
Here’s my gift and time,
'cause I'm constantly tryna ta be used to praise the Christ,
If He’s truly raised to life, 
Then this news should change your life ,
And by His grace you can put your faith in the place that rules your days and nights,
YES!

In the end, God is too worthy, beautiful and glorious for us to waste our lives on ourselves. The joy, comfort and peace from knowing the Living God are infinitely more valuable than the joy, comfort and peace from a large bank account, or from safe retirement, or to live our lives to 'relax, eat, drink and be merry.' This is an attitude in my own life that I must fight for everyday. I need to remind myself of how marvelous the Gospel of God's grace is. I need to taste God's goodness. In these moments of gospel sanity, the lure of living to 'relax, eat, drink and be merry' fades away' and a passion to live for the Living God arises.  

As a Deer Pants For Flowing Streams

"As a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God,

for the the living God."

Psalm 42:1-2

What is your souls foremost desire? What is it that you seek above all? What is your principle necessity for life? 

With these words from the psalmists, we see that the Living God is both his chief desire and enjoyment, and also his primary necessity in order to go on in life. The psalmist did not desire respect, nor power, nor worldly comfort. His only comfort comes from communion with His God. And we see that communion with His God is his foremost enjoyment, and foremost necessity. 

Yesterday was a blistering day in St. Louis. The high temperature got up to 100 degrees. You can imagine how hot it feels during football practice @ 3:00, on the field turf, with absolutely no cover from the sun. During the course of a 2.5 hour practice, the players are obviously going to build up quite a thirst. You should see the scene when a water break is called. Pure relief. To someone who is thirsty, there is no greater luxury that cold water. To a parched man, there is nothing sweeter than tasting the refreshing waters upon his tongue. He desires that water above all else. He will seek that water.

Furthermore, as Charles Spurgeon says about this verse, "He (the psalmist) viewed it (water) not merely as the sweetest of all luxuries but as an absolute necessity, like water to a stag." We all need water to live. The psalmist pants after God because it is a necessity in order for him to live. A day without God and he is destitute, gasping for life, lost. With God, his heart is content, his life is full, his soul satisfied. In the absence of God, life is not true life.

 God is not a genie in a bottle where we come to him every once in a while when we have pressing supplications. God is the principle necessity of day to day life. Our life desire should be to be in communion with Him. Without communion with God, this entire life is worthless. The whole point of creation, both God creating us, and God creating the world, is for us to be in communion with Him, not as a mystical guy in the sky, but as the Living God. Our very life should be found in him. We need God as a deer needs water to survive. Likewise, we should desire and pant after him as such. 

Have we experienced this kind of feeling? Does your soul pant for God, as a deer pants after water? Is communion with God your foremost enjoyment, and also you primary necessity to live? It's easy to become distracted in this world, putting God on the back burners. But, these verses remind us that God is the sweetest of all enjoyments. He is better than the enjoyments of the world. He gives true life. Further, God is what our hearts need. Without him, we are walking dead men. 

Lastly, the good news is that God has sent a Savior, Jesus, in order that our thirsts may be quenched. God sent Jesus, who referred to himself as the Bread of Life, and as the water that will quench our thirsts. This water is free and for all. Jesus invites all who are thirsty, to come and taste, to come and be restored to life. He came to sinners, in order to give them the sweetest enjoyment, and the principle necessity. Why wait?

For myself, I pray that God gives me this thirst, that I would desire communion with Him above all else, and that God would become increasingly sweet to me.

A Fish Out Of Water

"When a fish leaves the water, which he was built for, he is not free, but dead."--Tim Keller

As humans, we all seek freedom. We seek true life. The Bible's is God's Word to us, that this inner longing we have for true life and true freedom exists because we were created by God, to know God. True life and true freedom are only found when we are found in him. It is what we are made for. That is why the idols of this world, (power, success, respect, fame, wealth, security, comfort, love), never REALLY satisfy. We seek them, in hopes of gaining freedom and life, yet they always disappoint. All those things point us to the only thing which can truly satisfy our hearts. Just as Keller says, when we seek freedom in these other things, we think they will give us just that, freedom, but rather, they lead to death. 

The Spirit of the Mind

"and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 

and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God

in true righteousness and holiness"

Ephesians 4:23-24

A few observations about these two verses....

1: Our mind has a Spirit

• As humans, we are quite unique in our thought life. We are not merely robots, acting off of chemical reactions, but we are created after the likeness of God, made with a mind that is able to think, know, feel, and love. This verse refers to this as the spirit of the mind. 
• The spirit of our minds is deceitful. Something I notice about myself, is that I can sit down for hours and watch my favorite sports team. I can memorize every fact about the Chicago Bulls, or have the Bears 53 man roster memorized. I can tell you the Florida Gator's football recruiting stats for the last 5 years. But the second I sit down and try to focus on the Bible, it's like my mind is at war with me. I instantly start thinking of other things I need to do. When I try to meditate on Christ, my mind instantly wants to be elsewhere. I imagine I'm not the only one like this. This is because our mind by nature is depraved. We crave to put ourselves as primary, and God as secondary. It has been this way since Adam and Eve ate of the fruit. And because of this.....

2: Our mind needs to be renewed

• As stated earlier, we are made unique in regards to our thought life. We have an amazing ability to think, feel, know, love, and be loved. Further, our minds were ultimately created to know Christ, to love him, to be loved by him, to feel him. Given the depravity of our minds, where we constantly want to do things our way, rather than God's way, our minds need to be renewed. We need to be renewed to what they were created for. We were created to know and enjoy God. This is what is best for us. This is for our flourishing, for our good. It is for our joy. 
• Renewal is not a matter of information. The right information is everywhere. You can find it on the internet in a second. It is not a matter of merely knowing gospel facts, or knowing the information that God is the creator, and his Son Jesus is savior. There are countless millions in the world today who are informative Christians (which are no Christians at all). Being a Christian is transformative. Our minds must be transformed by the gospel. The Spirit of our mind must be renewed. And we are transformed not by mere information, but through the power of the gospel. 

3. Renewed in Christ:

• These verses tell us to be 'renewed in our minds, putting on the new self'. This new self is referring to our new life. The only way to have new life is through Christ. Being renewed in the spirit of the mind is not a matter of effort, it is a matter of surrender. We can only be renewed, we can only put on the new self, when we've surrendered the old self to Christ.
• Being renewed in Christ doesn't come when we try really really really hard to start thinking the right things, and being extra moral, or extra environmental, or extra nice. No. It comes when we realize that our minds are depraved, and that they never could renew themselves, no matter how hard we try, and that they are constantly putting our way as primary and God as secondary. And renewal comes when we realize this, and surrender our minds to Jesus, who was the only One who had a perfect mind. Jesus was everything we were supposed to be. Where we blew it, Jesus overcame. His mind was perfectly righteous and holy. Ours are not. 
• Let us look to the Jesus, who had the perfect mind in the likeness of God, that our minds may be renewed in Him. 

          

How Greatly He Exults

"O LORD, in your strength the king rejoices,

   and in your salvation how greatly he exults!

²You have given him his heart’s desire

   and have not withheld the request of his lips. 

³For you meet him with rich blessings;

   you set a crown of fine gold upon his head.

⁴He asked life of you; you gave it to him,

    length of days forever and ever.

⁵His glory is great through your salvation;

    splendor and majesty you bestow on him.

⁶ For you make him most blessed forever;^[a]

   you make him glad with the joy of your presence.

⁷For the king trusts in the LORD,

   and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved."

Psalm 21:1-8

In this psalm, David exults greatly in the salvation of the Lord. David rejoices that God has richly blessed him. He rejoices that God has given him life. He is overwhelmed by the joy of God's presence with him. 

My prayer this morning is that our life would be an exultation of the greatness of God. How wonderful are His works! Though we were once far off, hostile to God, alienated from His presence, without life and joy, though there was once a great dividing wall between us and our Creator, though we did not formerly belong to His beloved people, the Son of God descended from heaven and became man to give us salvation. He is Immanuel, God with us. Though humanity was wrecked, though our shame ran deep, His grace runs deeper. I exult in God because of His great love. Jesus came to earth to give us new life. Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection has now brought us near. At the cross, the hostility was crushed. If we believe in Him, we are no longer aliens, but sons. Through the Son, our life is being restored. Through Him, the dividing wall has been shattered once and for all. This truly is good news!

Like David, I rejoice in the strength of the Most High. I exult greatly in God's salvation because it is by His strength, not my might. Jesus said that he came to give us life to the full, or life abundantly (John 10:10) and to give us fullness of joy (John 15:11). Because we are united to Christ, we now have access to true life and true joy. Jesus is restoring to us life as it is intended to be. It is meant to be lived in fellowship with him. What a great salvation that God has made this possible!