The Great "Deposit"

Paul had a plan to establish the Churches in sound doctrine (didache). He understood that his message was not derived from his own mind niether had sprung-up from the culture. Paul had received a body of instruction from the Lord as noted in 1 Thessalonians 4:2, “For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.” Paul and the apostles, were entrusted with a deposit, a body of teaching, handed down from Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:5; 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:14). They were called to establish the Churches in this deposit, this great apostolic core. They were to preach and teach, bear upon minds, remind, refresh, recall, establish, equip, ground, solidify, build-up, entrust, investigate, build on, expound, reflect on, reason with, develop, illustrate, apply, recollected, to literally deposit the “good deposit” to others, and thus bring the Church to a deeper insight (Eph. 1:17-19). This good deposit is necessary to build mature believers..
“The Teaching” was grounded in the redemptive facts of the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1). In a comprehensive sense, this body of teaching is about the “things concerning Jesus” (Acts 18:25; 28:31), and “the teaching” contains the entire content of the gospel (Gal. 1:12; Eph. 4:21). This body of teaching is found in the activities of the apostles (Acts 11:26; Col. 1:28) as “the teaching of the apostles” (Acts 2:42; Rom. 6:17), “the teaching of God, our Savior” (Titus 2:10), “the good teaching” (1 Tim. 4:6), “the sound teaching” (1 Tim. 1:10; 2 Tim. 4:3; Titus 1:9).*
Paul also desired to establish the Churches because of dangers to the Churches. They were to be grounded in “sound doctrine,” like a billion pound anchor at Sea, so that they wouldn’t be tossed back and forth by every wind of false doctrine (Eph. 4:14), rebuke those who contradict “sound doctrine” (Titus 1:9), and were called to watch out for those who create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that they had been taught (Rom. 16:7). Paul encouraged Timothy to warn those who teach different doctrine than what Paul had given (1 Tim. 1:3) and who practice a sensual lifestyle contrary to sound doctrine (1 Tim. 1:10).
Positively, Paul wanted good doctrine to be placed before all the Christians in the Churches (1 Tim. 4:6). They were to hold firm to the trustworthy word “as taught” (Titus 1:9), adorn the doctrine of God our Savior (Titus 2:10), and teach what accords with sound doctrine (Titus 2:1). Paul wants the Churches to have deep bedrock slab to build upon.
The “teaching” was meant to widen the eyes of faith and see God as revealed in the person of Christ, sink the people with Word of Truth tent-stakes, build-up God’s people, and keep them from the ever-lurking dangers that seek to supplant the oak planks with quick sand.

A PLAN TO UNITE

"so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rules and authorities in the heavenly places." Ephesians 3:10

Did you ever ponder the thought that angels stand on tip-toe over the walls of heaven waiting to hear what God has to say through Christians? Gods speak through His people, like a conduit, not only to people but to the entire realm of angels both good and wicked. It is a new perspective for me to think that in all our masterful preaching, charitable evangelism, and earnest appeals to mankind, we announce God to ALL creatures-both to earthly places and to spiritual realms! First Peter 1:12 does state that angels do long to look into the things of God and it would be no stretch of the mind to believe then that "rulers and authorities in heavenly places" listen to sermons for fresh news about God.

Ephesians 1:10 has the answer. It says, "according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to UNITE all things in him, things in HEAVEN and things on EARTH."

God's manifold wisdom is being made known in the physical and spiritual realms by all true believers everywhere. Christ's plan is to unite the universe under His sovereign power and authority, as it was meant to be! Adam and Israel failed to spread God's love and goodness everywhere, but God knew it would be so. Since the Fall things are dislodged, separated, out of joint, disconnected, flawed, ruined, fallen, estranged, alienated, and divided. Christ is bringing, through the Church, a united cosmos under His banner of love. Church is not some obscure event on Sunday. We the church, of all those who proclaim the excellencies of Jesus Christ, are in a serious enterprise to announce the manifold wisdom of God and a kingdom to come, a united universal frontier, to all peoples, angels, and demons everywhere.

A Glorious Gift Returned

"And if you call on him as Father who judges ..."
1 Peter 1:17

Do you you live as if God will one day be your judge who may or may not condemn you and perhaps bring you to a second-class heaven? God cannot condemn the Christian. He will not slam the gavel of wrath and peer down from the Judgment Seat with angry eyes. The gavel of full wrath was slammed squarely upon Christ. Yes, we will be judged but ONLY by a loving Father and friend. God cannot judge sin twice.

In 1 Peter 1:17 the word “judges” in the Greek means “to find out what is good.” God will bring to account all that was done good in His name and for His glory and weigh it in divine scales. The scales will never tip in favor of Hell, condemnation, and wrath. Our works will go through a furnance, a sifter, a grader, or a refining moment to determine what is for reward. The pure works of faith will be honored/crowned, and given to us as true works of righteousness. This, in some way, this pure and pristine crown, is a gift to give back to Christ as a memorial of His work in us.

When I was a little kid, my parents would give me money to buy them gifts at Wilson Elementary Christmas bizarre. I would spend hours seeking the best candy cane deer with bobble eyes or the Santa Claus made of pipe cleaners and a cotton beard. I was so excited for them to open each gift since I had spent many serious hours scouring the best at the bizarre for the parents I loved. Likewise, God has given us spiritual abilities to invest in the kingdom. In the end, we will take what our Father has given us and present it back to His Son as a glorious memorial present of praise and honor, joy and celebration. Christian judgment will be an event to extract and burn up all the “humanness” from our works to there most godly essence, as a distilled crown/s. Then, back to God it goes as a most celebrated gift.

We will present our pipe cleaners and our candycane reindeer back to God, who gave us the ability to work it. It will be a great event to watch our God & all of heaven rejoice at the gift returned!

Nightime Meditation & The Astronomer

January 19, 2008

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:3-4

This was David's nightime meditation. He had many nights as a shepherd, prior to becomming king, to look up at the panorama and contemplate God, existence, the vastness of innumermable worlds, the circuit of the stars, the glowing moon, and how very small he was. While often, many of us plan evil in our beds, David walked the nights with his sheep and contemplated the Divine Architect. In doing so, it forced David to say, "What is man that you are mindful of him, and that you would even care for such a small being as myself?" This part shepherd-part astronomer ought to be the most two humbling of all occupations. The Bible says that Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth and I would imagine his 40 yrs of sheperding had no small effect in that process. How can one who looks at the stars, gigantic spheres, shooting comets, and the swirling of galaxies, ever be prideful? His very existence is dwarfed everywhere he looks. What a great training ground for Christian humility!

Though David was small in comparison to a vast universe, a small thing is not however, an insignificant thing. One diamond is more precious than a load of rocks. God is mindful of small as well as the great, especially us who are made in His image, who have been given a rational and moral soul after His own likeness. Yet there is a problem.

The Bible answers the question that David posed, "What is man..?" It says that he is a flower that fades, a worm, prideful, enemy of God, and under the wrath of God. Yet, in all this ugliness, God has sent His Son Jesus Christ to restore the fallen image. The stars at night are meant to bring us to a humble place and shrink us as we grow colossal in the estimation of ourselves. We must shrink low in order to get under heaven's doorway. We must think little of ourselves and much of the Savior. By this humility, there will be an exaltation. As stars and moon press upon us from above, they help us fit under heaven's doorway. At the right time, as we beginning to shrink under the realization of our own sin and rebellion, God moves in by granting grace and repentance and we come freely through Jesus at just the right size.

Idols in the Heart

"Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them, "This is what the sovereign LORD says: 'When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts wicked stumbling blocks before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the LORD will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols." Ezekiel 14:1-5

When an idol is present in the heart, God wants to deal directly with that problematic idol first. Though we may not know it, God is targeting the epic center of our sin and shoots his Fatherly arrows right into the bulls eye of our growing idolatry. Idolatry is an act of worship, other than God, within the heart that controls your behavior to commit sin. This is the "other Master" that Jesus spoke of when he said, "No one can serve two..."

Israel's elders had good intentions and I am sure, like many Christians, they had sincere and honest requests to lay before the feet of Almighty God. However, God first wants to answer the issue of their heart idol. This is why God said, "I will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry." God planned to recapture their hearts and excise the ever-creeping idols within. It is the same for Christians today.

An idol that is camped-out in the heart distorts a Christian's view of everything. In verse 3, it says that heart idols are "wicked stumbling blocks before their faces." A stumbling block before one's face is like a plank in the eye. Clear vision and understanding is distorted like trying to drive with an icy car window. We go about our daily routine of devotion, prayer, and meditation thinking we have a great relationship with God. Nonetheless, God says, "Hold all your request right there. You are not right with me. You are bathing daily in secret forms of idolatry. You are commiting great crimes against Me. Lets deal with the problem first!"

Until the idol is removed, it will distort everything else. When laying ceramic tile, it is the 1st tile that is most important. If that tile is off and not perfectly positioned and measured-out from each of the four walls, the whole will will not be configured symmetrically. Our hearts must be positioned squarely with no crooked idols dwelling in our minds(hearts). If so, it must be eradicated and ousted from His temple where His Holy Spirit dwells...within you. God is determined to have our lives in spiritual symmetry and if we resist, idol biopsy will come. Like malignant melanoma found in the skin, it must be removed soon or it will disrupt the entire constitution of the man and lead to eventual death.

Therefore, keep watch over the golden calf in your heart. If you do not know what they are, ask God to reveal your hidden faults and idols that lie in the secret chambers of your mind. Repent daily in humility. God will make you into Christ's image and eventually pulverize all stumbling blocks from your vision into mere powder. It is God who will enable you to maximize your life for the glory of Cbrist by this life long process of idol extraction. First by recognition and then by the gift of repentance, and thus having clear vision of the cross of Christ in all your daily happenings.

A Destined Course

Bob Sloan, a man from Ohio, was convicted of second degree homicide. Bob has had no prior convictions. He was drinking and driving that morning when he hit a motorcyclist who had 4 priors for reckless driving. No doubt that each was at fault. Bob is serving a 7 year prison sentence and is in poor health nearing the age of 60. I work with his wife, Barb Sloan. I have communicated with him several times through letters and he has written me a poem that I can't get out of my mind. The poem seems to portray a man who lives life to the fullfest with great anticipation and achieves great things without God, but later realizes his lot was to believe and become one with God. In the end, after all is said and done, a destined course God has wove through our wanderings and in our return to Him. This is by Bob Sloan:

LOOKING BACK

Me, myself
And also I
Though we might
Traverse the sky
We climbed and climbed
The perfect blue
Stopping to rest
On a cloud or two
Sun to moon
We made our way
Among the stars
We'd hoped to stay

Yet, we travelled
On and on
This way, that way
Here, then yon

Narrowed gates
And widened paths
Lightness - darkness
Feast and fast
Temptation's guilt
Greed's remorse
We weaved our way
A destined course

There to find
It would be done
Never three
I was - but one
So - as it came
It was to be
The Father , the SON
The Spirit and me.

Inscrutable Ways

The wisdom of God, given to man, is not the gathering and compiling of knowledge. Neither is it the poring over God's providence and contemplating the "whys" of God's mysterious dealing with humanity. A search to nail down God's providential workings is a bottomless search that ends only in a physical, mental, and spiritual hardship. It is "a futile inquiry" as J.I. Packer said. Those who try to tap into the REASONS why God does what He does will be driven to levels of insanity. God tells us in Isaiah 55 that "My ways are not your ways nor my thoughts like your thoughts." It is a dangerous undertaking to hunt for all the reasons behind God's actions in daily lives. We will not be satisfied with our mind's finite solutions and we may end up becoming sign hunters who find God's reasons behind every unusual happening, every face in the cloud, billboard sign, or in every Bible page turned by the wind. We must have peace that all things are working together for good because God is good. And all that He does is for our ultimate best for from His glorious throne proceeds justice, goodness, and righteousness.

Lord, I don't need to know
The mystery how Your Providence flows
When life is unclear, foggy, and grey
Vain I measure Your inscrutable way

One drop of truth from Your infinite ocean
No luck, nor chance, sovereign sway in motion

Deep enough to drown in measureless degrees

You keep me afloat as a Father does please

Sorting Your ways makes me tiredly
Discerning You though not a futile inquiry
Scripture speaks I am to cling to You
Steadfast faith when without a clue

Veiled to all Your inter workings
Hidden from me are many things
Masterfully woven
Beloved and Chosen
My heart unfrozen
Indiscernible path ahead I sing