Podcast: In You Do I Take Refuge

We have uploaded the new podcast: a prayer from Psalm 31. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

The theology of dad

“Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.”
-Proverbs 3:7

A good father gives us so much insight into the relationship between the Christian and God. It is unfortunate that a good father (or fathers in general) has become so rare in our society. There is so much theology that can be learned by just having dad around.

Maybe that’s why the Church has become so weak in this age. At least one of the reasons. We are so confused about the way God works because we didn’t have fathers or our fathers were jerks.

The fear of the Lord is one of those things that get people worked up now. They do not understand how a loving God can and should also be feared. I don’t have an issue with it. Maybe it’s because I had (and have) a good dad.

I don’t have a doubt that my dad loves me. It never occurred to be that he didn’t. He was always there for me, always supportive, always ready to help. He is a loving father. But I also feared him. He had authority over me. It was ultimately his decision if I could go out and play ball or use the Nintendo. He could punish me, and often did.

I never got too full of myself in that house. I never started to think that I was in charge of the family or that my words had any sway beyond a kind and honest consideration. I never became too proud of my position there, as I am apt to do in every other area of my life. Why? Because of the fear of my dad. There is no question that my parents were in charge.

Our heavenly Father is like that. We can go to Him, talk to Him, get His advice, learn from Him. He loves us, and He wants us to go to Him with everything going on in our lives. And we should also fear Him, for He does have authority. He does have the ability and the will to chastise us. Our prayers should not be commands. Out of love He will listen and kindly and honestly consider us, but it is He who is in charge here.

Does that frighten you? I does not frighten me, because whatever punishment I received from my father helped shape me into a better man. He was not doing it out of revenge or sadism, but out of love, to guide me and instruct me. I am thankful for it. So too does God guide us, sometimes through pain.

Despite our Father’s love, many of us do not fear Him, and the result is we become wise in our own eyes. We become proud. We start thinking we’re in charge of the household, when we are only children under His care. Have you seen children like that? The kind who walk over their parents as though they were the ones with authority? Such a terrible sight it is, the likes of which I have never beheld. It fills me with such sorry misery that I am left shaken for days.

Do not be so bold with our Father, because unlike some parents who do not care enough to punish a misbehaving child, our Father is worthy of reverent fear.

He is also worthy to be trusted with all things. Like a good father He is ready to forgive a wayward child as soon as that child returns home. He may punish, but He will always love. He loves so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins, to take the wrath and just punishment for our sins instead of us.

Return to Him in repentance and faith, and you will find Him waiting for you with arms wide.

He’s a good Dad.

Don’t be a wise guy

“Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.”
-Proverbs 3:7

As I get older, I’m losing that urge to tell people about what’s going on in my life. I still do, to an extent, because it’s important for Christians to pray for one another, but I’m much more selective about the people I tell. In the past, I’d talk a lot about this stuff, mainly because I wanted to connect with people, I wanted to feel like I was with the crowd.

Now, not so much.

The reason I’ve cut down on that so much is because everyone feels like it is very, very important to give me their advice. And I wouldn’t mind so much if the advice were at all worthwhile. It usually isn’t.

Of course, we give advice (even when it is not sought) because we think we know everything. We wouldn’t say so in as many words, but think about it. How often do you give advice? How often do you TAKE it? Chances are, you give advice a lot more than you take it, because you think you’re all that. Me too.

There are few things more annoying in life than the person who really thinks he knows everything. You know the one. The person who is always telling the teacher he’s wrong. The person who has never read the Bible, and yet will openly declare that the pastor was wrong in the sermon. Who keeps talking in the meeting so much that it lasts two hours when it was supposed to take one. Who keeps calling every day to tell you how to deal with your wife, and then complains when you didn’t follow his advice.

Solomon has been telling us in the last few verses to not trust our own understanding, but to lean upon the Lord. What it comes down to is this: “Be not wise in your own eyes.”

Why not? Because the person who thinks he needs to be heard is not apt to listen.

God wants to guide us. He wants to lead us and keep our paths straight. He wants to teach us righteousness and make us more like Him. To this end He sent His only Son, Jesus, to earth to teach us, counsel us, exhort us, and die for us. In our foolishness we have sinned, and we deserve death because of it, but God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die in our place.

If we are so full of our own supposed wisdom, we will never see our own fallen state. But let’s face it. We’ll all wrong more than we’re right. We all walk down the wrong paths every day. We’re all consumed in greed, lust, selfishness, and pride. Pride, probably most of all. We all think the world needs to know what we have to say.

But if we turn away from that, repent of those sins, and believe in Jesus, we will be saved. In salvation we will be given the Holy Spirit, who is sent to instruct and guide us. To help us be wise, in other words.

Wisdom comes from God, not ourselves. The wisdom of the world has produced misery, death, war, famine, poverty, and hatred. The wisdom of God leads to life eternal.

The Bible tells us that if we lack wisdom, we should go to god in faith and ask. He does not withhold wisdom. If you would repent and believe in Jesus, then go to Him. Your prayer doesn’t have to be fancy. You don’t have to use “thee” and “thou.” Just talk to Him. Believe, and you will find wisdom.

Podcast Special Edition: God in Firefly and Serenity

This is a transcript of today's podcast. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

“I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done.”
-Isaiah 46:9-10

We’re doing something special today. We’re going to talk about Firefly. The reason for this is to mark the release of my new book, One Power in the ’Verse: Finding God in Firefly and Serenity. It is available now, if you go through my website, www.paullytle.com. We should have it on Amazon.com in the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for it.

This book looks at Joss Whedon’s science fiction series Firefly and its sequel Serenity from a Christian point of view. Which some may find very strange, since Joss Whedon isn’t a Christian. To which I would reply, it doesn’t really matter. I’ll try to explain why.

There’s a scene in Serenity where River, a young woman who has been conditioned and trained by the government, is in a bar. While there, she sees a commercial with an embedded hypnotic suggestion. She flips out and beats everyone up. And I mean everyone – men, women, she’s just wailing on the whole crowd. Her brother Simon comes in, and he speaks a certain phrase that causes her to sleep, obviously another hypnotic suggestion.

I’m not going to tell you the whole story, because I’d rather you see the movie if you have not already. But this scene is critic to the telling of the tale.

I like movies for many reasons, but one of the reasons I like movies is because the filmmakers arrange things so that we can see the whole story in one sitting. This never happens in life. In life, we see pieces usually, not the whole thing. We only rarely get to see something through. Most of the time, stories pass us by unresolved.

With movies, we get the whole thing. In a way, I think this is how God sees things. He knows what’s going on with all of the players, their entrances and exits, and He knows how it all ends.

I know how Serenity ends. I’ve seen it. Several times, in fact. So I know what that scene in the bar really signifies. The people in the bar probably never knew. Can you imagine those people telling their grandkids about the time a 90-pound girl wigged out in a bar and beat everyone up? “Why did she do that, gramps?” “Booze, kids. I stopped drinking that day. I’ll never pick up the bottle again!” Whatever they would tell their grandkids, if they said anything at all, it would undoubtedly miss the point. They could not know.

We can’t really know exactly what is going on in our lives either. Not ultimately. Not fully. Not in this life. But God does, and He doesn’t always move in the ways we think He will.

When He sent His Son, everyone kind of expected that Son to conquer the world. Instead, He was crucified. He died. The disciples were rather confused, and they hide themselves. How could this have happened?

It happened because that’s what we needed to be saved. Jesus could have taken over the world. But if He did, we’d still have the problem of sin. We’re all sinners, every one of us. We’ve sinned in lust, pride, arrogance, undue anger, ambition, and selfishness. And the rightful punishment for a sinner is death. Sound harsh? Imagine if we all brought our sins into heaven. We’d make the place just like earth, and we’ve made earth pretty rotten.

But God loved us so much that He sent His Son, not to take over politically, but to die. In that death, Jesus took the punishment we were supposed to have. Now if we repent and believe in Him, we will be forgiven, and we will be given His Spirit so we do not need to sin again. Then He rose again.

Most people thought it was a strange way of going about things, for God to have sent His Son to die. If I were in that bar when River flipped out, I would think it pretty strange too, but it was important.

In the end, God can use a show like Firefly too, even if its creator doesn’t know it. God works like that. That’s what the book is about. I hope you’ll check it out.

Some crooked roads have I seen . . .

“In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
-Proverbs 3:6

I’m not going to tell you life as a Christian is easier than it was as an unbeliever. It’s not. A lot of preachers out there are telling you that Jesus wants to make you rich and powerful and take away all of your problems. He doesn’t. We worship a homeless guy who was murdered. I’m not sure how that translates into wealth for us.

The Christian life is hard. It’s a lot harder in some parts of the world than in others. In America we don’t often see real persecution, not like in other countries. A lot of the difficulty we see is the struggle within ourselves, the conflict through which we become more like Christ. The Lord disciplines His children (Hebrews 12:6), much like a good parent disciplines his own, and pain often comes into our lives with the purpose of driving out sin.

So I’m not going to tell you, “Come to Jesus and have a life filled with flowers and money and hot women.”

I will say this: the life of a Christian is often a lot more clear. In the words of this verse, it is straight.

Because let’s be honest, many of the messes we get into in life are because of sin. We are caught in a lie, we get our girlfriend pregnant, we steal, we start yelling at people in traffic, we demand respect from everyone, we get into wars with coworkers over small misunderstandings. Everywhere we turn there is a reason to get angry, demanding, lustful, and upset.

Or, in those cases, we can turn to God and obey Him. If someone gets angry at us, we lean on Him and let it go. If something goes wrong at work, we trust Him to work it out. We believe in His purposes, His plans, and His means, not our own. Our own plans fail almost every time, but His never do. So why would we get upset? Why would we get anxious? Why would we react badly. In all cases we would praise the Lord, for we know He will work all things for our good (Romans 8:28).

Do you see how our paths will be straightened? When we focus on God, it is not that bad things do not happen to us, because they do. It is only that the bad things will not turn us to the left or to the right. We are at peace, even in a fallen world, and even when terrible things happen.

We will feel these things. We will still cry. We will still hurt. It will still be hard, yes. But like Jesus did, we can still believe God is guiding us, even when it hurts.

What happens if we do turn from the path? What happens when we get distracted by something, when we are not guided by God in that moment? Well, that is the very reason Jesus died. We have all sinned. We have all stepped off that path. But Jesus paid the price for our sin when He died, and if we repent and believe in Him, we will be forgiven.

It is not our own ability that keeps us on the path, but the Holy Spirit. We cannot earn our way into heaven. We have all sinned. It is only through Jesus that we can return to God. Repent and believe, and you will see that straight path again, the one that leads to life.

Out of control and loving it!

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
-Proverbs 3:5

I’m very much a plan guy. I like to have a plan. I want to know where I am, where I am going, and how I’m going to get there. I think days, weeks, and even months ahead on projects at work and home. I’m that guy.

My wife is even more of a plan person. While I will plan far ahead on work and home issues, I will pick a restaurant on a whim. She does not like that. She wants to know when we are going out and to where, and she doesn’t like it when I cannot answer that question the day before we go.

We like to be in control. I don’t think we are unusual in that. Most people like to be in control, whether or not they like to plan that far ahead. No one likes to be tossed about on every wind like an unmanned boat in a storm.

We are especially controlling when it comes to an immediate problem with someone we love. All we want to do is to fix it.

In Christianity, this is actually a problem.

See, God does not want us to worry about tomorrow, even whether we will eat or not (see Matthew 6:25-34). He wants us to trust Him to take care of it.

When we try to take control of every situation and bend the outcome to our will, we are being “amateur providences,” to borrow a phrase from Oswald Chambers. We are trying to play God. We are saying, in essence, “This situation is going to go all wrong without MY help!”, and we forget that God is in control of all things.

Do you not know that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28, NASB)? If we believe this, then why do we feel the need to worry over every problem that someone encounters? Should we sympathize? Yes! Should we be there for that person? Yes! But in the end, we should recognize that it is God that will guide the situation, not us. And we should remind our friends of that when they are going through pain.

This does not mean we should not hurt! Jesus wept, remember. This does not mean we should blow off someone’s pain. This does not even mean we should flippantly say “God is in control” and make someone feel bad for hurting. There is sin in the world. There is death and sickness. There are reasons to be sad. There are reasons to weep.

But there are also reasons to say, as Job did when Satan took all he had, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).

Jesus understands what we are going through. He’s been there. The worst evil the world has ever committed was committed against Him. Even though He was innocent, He was beaten nearly to death, hung on a Cross, mocked, scorned, and killed. He had done nothing wrong, and He faced death by crucifixion, one of the more torturous ways to die man has ever dreamed up.

And even that God used for the good. Through the death of Jesus, we can all be saved. By His Blood we can all be cleansed. See, we have all sinned, we have all committed evil, and because of that we could never earn heaven. But in death Jesus took the punishment for us. If we repent and believe in Him, we will be saved.

God took that terrible evil, the worst ever committed, and turned it into the greatest good this world has ever seen. That is the care and control He applies on our lives. If you are a Christian, then you are given the promise of Romans 8:28. God will use every bit of your life for your good. If you are not a Christian, become one. Repent to Jesus and ask His forgiveness. Believe in Him, and you will have this promise too.

And once you believe in Him for your soul, believe in Him for your bread too. He’ll take care of us; trust Him.

The new book is out!

Hey all, I wanted to let you know that my first book, One Power in the ’Verse: Finding God in Firefly and Serenity, is out and available now at lulu.com. You will soon be able to find it at Amazon, but I’ll give you the link when it’s there.

If you’ve ever seen the show or movie, you’ll know that Christianity and faith play a big part in the story, even though series creator Joss Whedon is not a believer. This book explores the role of Christianity in the story, as well as the underlying hints of God in the characters, their situations, and their reactions.

From the back cover:

“From the first scene of the first episode of Firefly, where Malcolm Reynolds kisses a crucifix before going into battle, God has played a major role in Joss Whedon’s fascinating look at the future. In One Power in the ’Verse, God’s presence in Firefly and its sequel Serenity is explored in detail, respect, and awe. With careful scholarship, author Paul Lytle shows that God is inexorably woven into the fabric of the ’verse . . . and why it’s better that way.”

You can read a sample chapter at my website: http://www.paullytle.com/books or order at http://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=6350726.

Podcast Episode 7: When did it all begin?

This is a transcript of today's podcast. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
-Genesis 3:22-23

We began this series on the Creation several weeks ago, and I said then that I would like to get back to the question of whether there was a literal six-day Creation or not. As we end the series, I would like to address it.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of time to address it fully, so we’re going to try to get to the root of the issue here. The Bible does describe, very specifically, a six-day Creation. There’s not much wiggle room in the words it uses. Even if you were to use the Hebrew word of “day” as an indefinite period of time, you still have the definite time distinctions when we learn that “there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

So you can believe that, or you can believe that this section of the Bible is poetical, rendering the great Creation of the universe into more common and immediate wording. Finally, you can believe that the Creation account it just wrong. As for me, I believe the Bible is true, and, in this case, literally true.

Why do I believe the six days are literal? For a very simple reason, really. The Bible tells us that death came about because of the Fall. So if the Fall happened millions of years after the Creation of the world, then how could there have been death?

Honestly, we don’t have the time it would take to go through the evidence. There are plenty of good websites that address the science in all of this. But science is secondary for me. I have faith in God, and that changes everything.

C. S. Lewis once wondered if Hamlet could have possibly known anything of Shakespeare. The only way it could have happened is if Shakespeare had written himself into the play. There is no other way.

Let us speculate more. What if Hamlet had taken it upon himself to discover the origins of his world. Would he have come to the conclusion that a playwright in England had dreamed it all up, or would he have arrived at some scientific explanation? In truth, he would have arrived at whatever conclusion Shakespeare wanted him to find.

Hamlet, trapped within a play, could not have possibly stepped out of the play and seen the workings of the real world except by the whim of Shakespeare. It seems equally absurd that someone, trapped within space and time as we are, to look at this same space and time and declare he has proof that there is no God. It would be like Hamlet declaring that there is no Shakespeare.

Ultimately, for me it does not come down to evidence. I have met God, and He has never misled me. Science is great and wonderful. I do not want to come across as some anti-science nutjob, because I’m not. I love science, but it has historically been wrong on nearly every topic. So it tries to tell me today there is no God, when only a few centuries ago it was telling me that sick people needed to be drained of blood. God has never been wrong, never misled me, and I believe.

In our case, our Author did step into our earthly drama. He came first through prophets who declared and wrote down His Words. Next He came as a man, Jesus. We can know Him. We can talk to Him, and we can read His very Words. He has told us who He is so that we can know Him. So we can be saved. In His death He is able to pay the price for our sins. If we repent and believe in Him, He will save us.

It’s not about science. It’s about someone who invented science for our benefit, but remains outside of it. Try talking with Him. If you are really ready to know Him, then just ask Him to teach you about Himself.

Hated for the wrong reasons

“So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.”
-Proverbs 3:4

It seems to me that the world hates Christians for the wrong reasons, and it also loves Christians for the wrong reasons.

Why does it hate us? I turn on the news, and I hear people complaining about Christians. They say we’re stuck up, self-righteous, condemning, hateful. Basically, they say, we’re a bunch of jerks who are trying to ruin everyone’s fun. They say we’re trying to shove our agenda down everyone’s throats. We’re trying to force everyone to be like us.

Why do they like us? With a few exceptions, we seclude ourselves away in churches amongst Christian friends and we don’t bother them. They don’t like what we stand for, but even we have to admit, we don’t stand for it very often. And thankfully, they would say, the number of Christians is rapidly decreasing.

So we have the image of the Christian from the world’s point of view. We’re self-righteous and annoying, but at least we keep to ourselves and aren’t converting a bunch more people.

In truth, the world should hate us, but not because we’re stuck up and religious. It should hate us because we stand up and say, “You’re not good enough! I’m not good enough! No one is good enough! That’s why we need Jesus.”

They will hate us plenty when we shine the light of truth on their actions. People get upset when they get called out on the things they are doing wrong. I know I did. I thought Christianity was about following rules. But it’s not about religion. It’s not about a bunch of rules. It’s about following Jesus.

We should not do this to prove how great we are, because we’re not. We sin just like everyone else does. When we tell the world about sin, it is not to call people to ourselves, but to call people to the one who saved us. I can tell you that you’re a sinner, but I can’t do a thing about it, just like I cannot do a thing about my own sin. But I know someone who can, and that’s why I tell you about it.

So that’s why the world will hate us, but this verse is talking about the way the world will love us. They should love us because we love them.

The Spirit will blossom such love in us that the world will not be able to help but to see it. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). 1 John 4: 8: “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

And what does degree of love really mean? It means that we are willing to give up our lives for that person (1 John 3:16, John 15:13).

In other words, you’re going to love your neighbor so much that you will talk to him about Jesus, which will make him mad, because he doesn’t want the light to shine on his deeds. But then you’re going to love him so much that you’ll help him fix his car, even after he cursed you out, which will make him think that maybe there’s something to Jesus after all.

Both must go together. Let me be very clear on this point: You are not loving your neighbor if you never talk about Jesus. If you love someone, you will want them to have life. And without Jesus, we are doomed. We have all sinned, and in sin we are unworthy of eternal life. We have condemned ourselves eternally. Heaven is no place for lust, pride, self-righteousness, ambition, and greed, and we wallow in that mess every day. Only Jesus lived without sin, and yet died anyway. He did not deserve to die, but he died.

Because of that, we who deserve to die may live. He took our sins upon Himself and died with them. He is able to give us His Spirit so we can walk in His righteousness. If we repent and believe in Him, we will find life. I ask you to repent of your sin and truth in Jesus, for through Him we may live.

Living by love

“Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.”
-Proverbs 3:3

If you had to pick a word that would sum up your behavior, thoughts, and motives for a day, what would that word be? If there were a sign around your neck with a word that summed up your motivation and desire, what would it be? Greed? Lust? Gossip? Anger? Despair?

What moves you? What drives you? What motivates you? What keeps you going during the day?

The world tells you to chase after money, sex, and power. Goodness, even some churches tell you to do chase these things. They will tell you to chase whatever makes you happy, no matter what it does to others.

The Bible tells us to love.

Wear that love around your neck so that everyone can see it openly, and so that you can be reminded of it in every turn. Write it on your heart so that every thought is just dripping with love and truth.

Love. That’s the whole thing. Jesus summed up the entire Word of God with two commands: Love God, and love people (see Matthew 22:34-40).

“Faithfulness” can also be translated as “truth.” How wonderful this word is. It tells us to love with a love that hides nothing, and never fails.

How does that sound? Does this sound like something you would want as your driving force, your motivation? Does this sound like something you would want guiding your every thought?

Maybe not. Maybe you are comfortable looking out for yourself. But what if God was like us? What if He only looked out for Himself, was only motivated by greed, selfishness, and anger? How would He respond to us? How would He respond to an ungrateful creation that only looked out for itself and refused to follow Him?

He wouldn’t react the way we would want, I’m willing to bet. Thanks be to God that He is motivated more by love. In love He sent His Son to die for us, that our sins might be forgiven on the Cross. In love He offers to forgive us by the Blood of Jesus. In love He wants us to live forever with Him, even though we don’t deserve it. In love He asks for nothing in return, but only that we repent and believe in Jesus.

Let love fill me, overflow, and never stop pouring out, for love has saved me from certain death, and so I will never mock love again.

The connection between picking up your room and long life

[Remember the teachings of your father] “for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.”
-Proverbs 3:2

What causes death? Every so often we get a new list of the top causes of death in America, undoubtedly topped by heart disease. But that’s not really what I mean. The ultimately cause of death in this country or any other country is sin.

“The wages of sin is death,” the Bible tells us (Romans 6:23). When Adam ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, he simultaneously introduced sin and death into the world. On that day, he died spiritually, and some years later, he died physically. Without sin, neither event would have happened.

Since then, we have all sinned, and we are all deserving of death. Does that mean that when someone dies, God is striking that person down for a certain particular sin? I don’t think so. That certainly does happen, but I don’t think we could say, “If I hadn’t stolen that candy bar as a child I wouldn’t be dying now!” No, because we’ve committed plenty of sin, from lust to greed to ambition to selfishness to pride. We’re all guilty.

This verse tells us that if we obey the commands of our father, we will have a long life. This is part of what the verse is talking about. Since sin is the cause of death, if we can live without sin (which we can’t, but theoretically), we will not die. Don’t get too excited: it’s too late for that for you, as it is for me. We’re guilty. Let’s move on from here.

There is more to it. The Ten Commandments tells us this: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

Again we have this promise. We’ve already seen that we cannot be without sin. We’ve already failed at that, so what is this talking about?

In part, this verse is talking about a very practical way of having a long life: by living rightly. How many people have died because of wrong living? Certainly there are obvious examples of those who die in shootouts or from sexually transmitted diseases or drug use, or a thousand other deaths that are directly caused by behavior, but how many people have died of heart attacks because they worked themselves to death, ignoring the command of God to take a day off every week (Sabbath)? How many add stress in their lives worrying about this or that, when Jesus tells us to leave the worrying about this world to God? How many add pounds, with all the problems that come with obesity, by ignoring God’s warnings about gluttony?

This is a general statement, because so many clean-living people die prematurely for other causes, but we should be able to see that living life at peace with others and devoted to God and family will add years.

But there is a third meaning here, and it is most important. When we obey our Father in Heaven, our lives will ultimately never end.

We have all sinned and deserve death. And while we will almost certainly die physically (unless Jesus comes back before then), we do not have to remain spiritually dead.

When Jesus died on the Cross, He took on the death that we all deserved. He took our sins upon Himself and paid the price for them. That was the only way we could stand before a Just and Holy God and not be punished.

Now that the debt is paid, we are able stand before His Throne without perishing. But we have to turn away from our old lives of sin and ask His forgiveness. Repent and believe in Jesus, and He will freely give you this life.

It is a free gift, irrespective of anything you can do to earn it. Perhaps you have lived sinfully your whole life, and you don’t think you can be redeemed. But the Blood of Jesus, you can. Maybe you’ve lived a clean life, but you know that there are a few mistakes in your past that prove that you are a sinner like the rest of us. By that same Blood you can be cleansed. Repent and believe, and you will be saved.

Podcast Episode 6: Two Temptations, Part 2

This is a transcript of Saturday's podcast. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
-Genesis 3:4-5

For those of you who were with us last time, we are taking a look at the Fall in Genesis 3, where Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempts Eve to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan uses two approaches, and we already looked at the first, where he tries to place doubt that God even said what He said.

This time, He will use a much more subtle approach: he will question the meaning of God’s straightforward command.

He was refuted when he suggested that God did not make the command at all. Eve rightfully puts him in his place then. But that does not stop him. He says, in essence, “Oh, you’re right. God did say that. I remember now. But that’s not what He really meant. See, you have to take what He says in cultural context. It doesn’t come across that way in the original Hebrew. There’s no way you can take God’s command for that time and place and apply it to the modern world! See, God is putting us on a trajectory where one day we would be able to eat from the Tree. when He said ‘eat,’ God was really referring to an old Hebrew tradition of cutting fruit in half before you eat it, but it’s perfectly okay to eat it whole. Or maybe God said, ‘do not eat,’ but if you don’t chew it, it’s not really eating.”

I’m exaggerating, of course, but it’s to make a point. The Church today is filled with interpretation. We use all sorts of excuses to ignore the very clear Word of God. We try to claim that passages are cultural, as though the Holy Spirit meant the Word to only apply to certain people in a certain place and time. We pretend certain words do not mean other words, such as taking the phrase “sexual immorality” to mean that fornication is perfectly okay, because the word “fornication” was not specifically used. We try to say that God meant for us to evolve beyond certain passages, so that the words of His only begotten Son aren’t important anymore. We try to take the Grace of God and say we don’t have to worry about the rest of it. We make new laws and ignore old ones. We have pet passages and skip the others. We take things out of context and make doctrine out of it.

And every bit of it comes from the devil.

Every bit.

It’s the old lie: God didn’t really mean what He said. Well, I tell you the truth, “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21).

I’m going to tell you something else. It’s better that way. It’s better that we can trust the Word of God. It’s better because we’re not worthy of Him. We know it. If you think otherwise, then I urge you to take a look at your life, at the greed, lust, undue anger, selfishness, and ambition. Look at the motives of your heart, and tell me that you don’t need to fear a just God.

But we can trust the Word of God, and that Word tells us that Jesus paid the price for our sin when He died on the Cross. He died for us, so we might live. And the Bible also tells us that if we repent and believe in Jesus, that we will be forgiven.

There may be parts of the Bible you don’t like. I would ask you to try to understand them fully instead of dismissing them. Study them. See, because if we discard of the Bible, then we have thrown away our only chance at life, because it is the Bible that teaches us about Jesus.

Father’s guidance

“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments,”
-Proverbs 3:1

Do you remember the counsel of your father?

I certainly do. I’ve been blessed enough to have a father who has been devoted to and caring toward his children unceasingly. I have a lot of respect for my father, and not simply because he is my father. He is an attorney, which is not always an honorable profession, but when I used to work in the courthouse, there were several people I respect tell me that my father is one of the most honorable men in the county.

That sort of thing means a lot to me. I mean, most of us grow up thinking that our fathers can do no wrong. That’s just sort of the way childhood is. But at some point you’re obviously going to figure out that’s not true. Well, my dad is capable of being wrong, of course. But it’s wonderful to learn from others that he’s the sort of man I always thought he was.

We are still close, and he still gives me advice. I always take it and consider it. My father and I disagree at times, as everyone does, but I can count on him to advise me the best way he knows how, and I know I can accept his advice readily.

But as blessed as I am to have the father that I do, I have a Father who is greater still, whose words will never lead me astray, and whose guidance will lead me to everlasting life. Some of you do not have an earthly father as I do, and maybe your vision of what a dad should be is a little fuzzy. Let me assure you, our Heavenly Father is better to you than you imagine.

When we get into trouble, it’s funny how we will go to people who often have massive problems in their own lives for advice. You know, you’re having relationship trouble, so you go to a friend who is in the middle of a divorce for help. Or you have money trouble, so you talk with your friend, who probably has a large balance on a credit card. My point being, we seek an answer, but we’re usually seeking answers from people who don’t have a clue as to how to fix things. At best, you’ll find someone who is right “most of the time.” I’m greatly blessed to have the father I do, but he’s not always right, and I’d be a fool to just do what he says all the time. People have come to me for advice, and they’d be a fool to do everything I said too.

But God is never wrong. God never misleads. God never makes mistakes or lies. God never tempts with evil. God would be a good person to talk to about life.

And God talks back.

God divinely inspired the Bible, every word of it, to help guide us. It counsels us on all sorts of situations, mundane, familial, political, relational, religious, societal, legal, practical, intimate, and many others! And it never goes wrong. If you know Jesus, know your Bible, and follow, it will not lead you astray.

So Solomon is talking to his son, telling his son to not forget his words. But He is also guided by the Holy Spirit as he writes it, guided so that every word ultimately comes from God, and these words are Scripture, from our Father in Heaven. He is telling us not to forget His Words.

Of course, you have to know them first. You have to read your Bible.

There’s good reason to. Ultimately, the Bible is the story of Jesus, God’s only Son, who came to earth in the form of a man and died upon the Cross. Why? The Bible tells us. Because we have fallen short of the Glory of God. Because in greed, lust, ambition, undue anger, selfishness, and pride we have made ourselves unworthy of Him. We deserve death because of these things. But Jesus, who did not sin, died in our stead. He paid the price so we wouldn’t have to.

If we repent of our sins and believe in Jesus, we will find eternal life. We will be given the Holy Spirit to guide us so we no longer are enslaved by sin. We will be forever united with the Father.

Check it out. It’s a Good Book.

Podcast Episode 5: Two Temptations, Part 1

This is a transcript of Saturday's podcast. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
-Genesis 3:1-3

In the third chapter of Genesis, we come to the Fall. This is where Satan comes to the Garden of Eden in the form of a serpent and tempts Adam and Eve to sin. They do, and God’s perfect Creation becomes tarnished.

It is interesting to me what Satan says to tempt Eve away from God. Basically, he has two approaches, and they are approaches he still uses today, which makes them important to understand. We’ll look at the first today.

“Did God actually say that?” he asks.

What a challenge! He even misquotes God, just to plant doubt. “Did God command to not eat of any tree?” God said nothing of the sort! It is only the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that is forbidden. He is taking the Word of God and misquoting it for effect.

He is probing, trying to figure out what Eve knows. Does Eve remember the command of God, or is there wiggle room in her memory that he can exploit? In truth, there is wiggle room there. Eve responds that they are not even allowed to touch the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God never said. He only said not to eat of it.

But even though Eve does not remember the command perfectly, she does pass this test. She does not eat when Satan says these things. Not yet, anyway. I wonder if we pass this test. Frankly, I hear this challenge made against God’s people all the time. Did God really say that?

Did God really say that it is only through Jesus that we can be saved? Did God really say that wives are supposed to submit to their husbands? Did God really say that we should not have sex outside of marriage? Did God really say that we shouldn’t desire to be rich?

And sometimes the challenge comes misquoted, as Satan does to Eve. Did God really say that money is the root of all evil? Well, no He didn’t. He said that the love of money was the root of all sorts of evils. This next one is a favorite misquotation amongst atheists to discredit the Bible. Did God really say to not kill and then command the Jews to wage war? Well, God actually said to not murder, which is distinctly different than the word “kill.”

The world calls the God of the Bible all sorts of terrible things. They call Him a barbarian, a butcher, a chauvinist, a racist, a hate-monger. In all of these things they are asking, “Did God really say . . .” But Satan will often twist the words of God to claim something that God never claimed.

The challenge is going to come at us from everywhere: Did God really say this? The only way we can answer the question is to know what He said. He gave to us the Bible so that we would know exactly what He has said.

Let me tell you something God really did say: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Every day we fall for the temptations around us, but God does not want these sins to remove us from His Glory. So He sent His Son to die in our place. Satan tries to bring us into sin and trap us there, but the Blood of Christ can bring us out of that trap. If you repent of the ways you have fallen for those lies and believe in Jesus, you will be saved. Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Believe in Him, for He is the way to life.

Proverbs 2:22: No inheritance for you!

“but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.”
-Proverbs 2:22

We’ve been looking at the last two verses of Proverbs 2 the last few times, and we’ve talked about how the Jewish people were promised the land of Canaan, and yet how God would allow foreign powers to come and conquer the land at times when the Jews turned their back on God and followed their own pleasures. We have also seen how these verses also speak to us about heaven.

I think a lot of people today just expect God to accept everyone, no matter what they do or say. Or at very least, most people believe that they are good enough for God. Wherever the cutoff line is, it’s below me!

The Old Testament describes us as harlots in places. It says that we have sold ourselves to the highest bidder. Frankly, some bids were not too high. We have turned away from God for women, for money, for power, for food, for popularity, for football games, for drink, for video games, for work, for anything we can think of. Is it any wonder that God would just kick the Jewish people out sometimes?

What have you put in front of God? Is it one of those things I’ve mentioned, or is it something else?

In truth, we’ve all done it. We’ve all abandoned God for something far less glorious. We have all fled, disobeyed His commands, ignored His Word, and have not acknowledged Him. We have been proud, arrogant, selfish, lustful, and ambitious.

And like spoiled children we demand that God accept us the way we are instead of coming to Him in humility.

How can we lay claim to the Promised Land? We are the wicked that will be cut off.

Except that there is Jesus.

Jesus has the power to move us from the “wicked” category to the “upright” category from the previous verse. When Jesus died, He took on the punishment that we deserve upon Himself. It is as though we were banished, and He went in our place. Except, once He paid for our debt by His Blood, He came back to life and ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us.

If we repent of our sins and believe in Him, we will find life. We will remain in the land forever.

Proverbs 2:21-22: This land is your land!

“For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.”
-Proverbs 2:21-22

Wow. We’re going to do two verses today. That is a first. I’m very excited.

I’m doing it because I want to give a good example of what Solomon is talking about. We learned last time that, in the Old Testament, God would sometimes bring a foreign army to take the land of Canaan away from the Jews when they had been disobedient.

One of my favorite books in the Bible is Nehemiah, which takes place at the end of one of these periods of exile. Jerusalem has been completely destroyed, and has been in ruins for decades. Nehemiah is a faithful man who works as the cupbearer the king. He basically drinks a sip of everything the king has to make sure it’s not poisoned. One day, Nehemiah hears from some other Jews, and he is suddenly struck with a profound need to see the city rebuilt. God softens the heart of the king to allow him to go, and so he goes to rebuild it.

This takes guts, my friends. There are enemies all over the place, and none of them want to see the Jewish people regain a little power by regaining their walled city. There is danger all over the place, and several people are trying to kill or discredit Nehemiah. But he, along with faithful people from all over, do the work. They rebuild the walls.

The town begins to flourish again, and one of the religious leaders, Ezra, holds a mass revival in the town where thousands come to God. The Jews have returned to their home.

After many years, Nehemiah returns to his post as the cupbearer for the king. But he learns some unrighteous people have come to Jerusalem and are messing everything up. So he goes back and runs them all out of town, beating up some as he goes.

Pretty cool.

This is exactly what Solomon is talking about. But this story also speaks of Jesus, and the “land” that is promised for us. You see, like Nehemiah, Jesus came to a broken land, a place ravished by sin and death, to rebuild. The walls He erected were not physical ones, but walls of a different kind. Was he not described as the cornerstone, after all?

He came in order to bring the faithful home, to protect them with the Spirit. To bring them together in Him.

And like Nehemiah left government and religious leaders in place when he left, Jesus sent to us His Spirit when He returned to heaven.

However, our cities, our homes, and even our churches have become infested with unrighteous men. There are pulpits all over filled by greedy men and blasphemers, leading people astray.

But like Nehemiah, Jesus will come again, and He will drive out the unrighteous.

This “land,” which is ultimately our adoption by God Himself, is for the faithful alone. Eternal life with Him is for the faithful. The others will be driven out.

So what makes a righteous person? Jesus. Only Jesus can make you righteous. See, we have all fallen into unrighteousness with greed, ambition, lust, and selfishness. We have all fallen short of God’s Glory. But like Nehemiah came to bring people into the city while they did not have the power to do it without him, so too did Jesus come to bring us into the kingdom, into the land, while we could not on our own.

Repent of the ways you have fallen short. Admit that you cannot make it on your own and believe that Jesus has done the work to make you righteous. Believe, and come inside.

Podcast Episode 4: In His Image

This is a transcript of Saturday's podcast. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
-Genesis 1:26-27

A brand, for good or bad, is something that means something to us. We see a brand, whether on clothing, food, or even cattle, and we understand it. It brings up certain emotions and ideas. I, for one, avoid certainly clothing brands like the plague. The reason is very simple: I bought clothes with that brand and they fell apart. Other brands I trust quite a bit more.

We brand things to tell something of their source. A movie studio will put its brand at the beginning of each movie to let you know who was behind it. Even the title of this podcast, Christian Pilgrimage, is a brand of sorts. It is the same name we use for the written blog, and the same as our website, www.christianpilgrimage.org, because we want you to know where these come from, that they are connected.

It is fascinating to me that God put His brand on us, in a way. He made us in His image and likeness. He set us apart from the rest of the Creation as His own. Of everything we see and touch and smell in this world, no matter how wonderful, nothing else has the spark of the eternal as man does.

And we can see the quality of His workmanship in ourselves. So intricate are the organs and systems that make us work.

Yet one thing amazes me: how we image-bearers of God can so abuse the honor. We were given the world, and we have trashed it! We were given minds that can conceive of wonderful things, and we use them to wallow in filth. We abuse each other with violence, sin against one another sexually, lie and steal. We are self-promoting and egotistical. We are selfish and greedy. We have everything, and our response is to hoard it. I grow so disappointed in my own failings, friends. I have been given such a great gift in His image and likeness, and I have fallen so often.

If the owner of a company finds out that his cherished brand name is being abused at a certain factory, that they are making shoddy products and running his name into the mud, what will he do? He will go to the factory and fix the problem. This is exactly what Jesus did. The Son of God came to us to guide us back to where we belong. To restore us.

This is the great thing about this story. We were made in the image and likeness of God, but we went astray in sin. So Jesus comes in the image and likeness of us, and yet without sin, to bring us home.

Jesus told a story of a landowner who sends his servants and finally his son to his property to deal with some wayward renters. The renters kill the son, they were so drunk off their own power. That is what we did with Jesus. The created thing did not even recognize the Creator, and we killed Him.

Does that mean it’s too late for us? God’s Son is dead, so is that the end? Does He quit and leave us to our own devices? No, because God loves us. On the Cross, Jesus bore the punishment for our sins, and then He rose again to insure our place in eternity.

If we repent and believe in Him, we will be forgiven. We will be raised up like Jesus and given a place with God forever. We will be restored to what we were always meant to be.

We are His image-bearers, after all.

Proverbs 2:21: Possession of the land

“For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it,”
-Proverbs 2:21

One of Shakespeare’s best plays is King Lear, which tells of an aging king who is going to split up his land between his three daughters. But, being a vain old dude, he wanted them to tell him how much they love him before deciding who will get what part. The first two daughters kiss up to him and flatter him, but the third basically tells him, “I’m not going to flatter you. You know how much I love you by my actions.” Lear disowns the third child, even though she is the only one who really loves him.

Thankfully, our Father in Heaven isn’t like old Lear. He is quite astute with a keen sense of justice. He wants to provide for His children. But when it comes to following Him, He is not interested in mere flattery. He wants us to have real faith in Him.

This passage is alluding to the Promised Land of Canaan. After the Jews were delivered from Egypt through Moses, they came to the Promised Land, but the people were too scared to go in and face the people already living there. Because of their lack of faith, God decreed that they would wander the desert for 40 years until the unfaithful had all died off.

After that time, possession of the land could almost be seen as a faith barometer. Whenever the people would turn away from God and go after their own pleasures and sin, God would allow another nation to come in and take over the land. When the people would turn back to God, the land would be delivered back to them.

You see, it is in faith that God’s people are to share in their inheritance. They have claim to it, but only in God, and not in themselves. Solomon is telling his son here, “Remain faithful to the Lord, and this will not be taken away.”

There are a lot of Christians out there who will ignore passages like this, because they are somehow unimportant, they will saw, under the new covenant with Christ. Is this part of an old system that has passed away? No, it’s not. See, the Old Testament is vitally important to Christians because it speaks of Jesus too (see Luke 24:27, for example).

In Christ we will inherit the Kingdom of God. It is a gift that we do not receive by good works or secret ceremony, but by faith. By His Blood He has washed away the sins of those who repent and follow Him, and we will follow into eternal life. Once redeemed by His Blood, we will remain in the Kingdom forever.

But it is only in this way that we can find life. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Corinthians 6:9). It works in the same way today that it worked in the Old Testament. In faith we remain. If we reject God and turn away from Him, we will fall to our enemies.

Jesus, in His death, has paved the way for us to receive this gift. It does not matter what you have done, what situation you are in, or the life you have lived. You don’t have to earn this. Only accept it by repenting and believing in Jesus. This is the way to the Promised Land.