28 February 2015

The false gospel of the lawless Jesus

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
Titus 2:11-15

The grace of God isolated from the law of God is meaningless.  The Law defines what Grace exists to teach us. Self-control, righteousness and godly living and good works are defined by the Law. 
Our need for God's unmerited favor, only makes sense if there is a law which defines righteousness and makes us guilty of sin. 

There is a significant voice in the broader "christian" community that insists that since Jesus brought "grace and truth." (John 1:17) this somehow makes it wrong to proclaim the law. The catch is that the "loving" Jesus, when he proclaims God's grace does so in terms defined by the law: repentance (Matthew 3:2) and "sin no more" (John 8:11). Are terms that only make sense in the context of the law.

Jesus himself said very plainly that rejecting the law, "lawlessness", is grounds for being condemned, even when doing great things under the pretense of Jesus' name (Matthew 7:22-23).

In other words, failure to understand the law will lead people to believe in a false Christ, and a false Gospel. One who expects little and only serves to promote human flourishing.
Jesus himself said that he did not come to abolish the law but to bring it to it's fullness (Matthew 5:17-19). 

Therefore any time there is a perceived conflict between the Law and Grace, what is at stake is the Gospel itself.  God's Grace is the means by which God writes the Law on our hearts,(Jeremiah 31:33).
To teach the Law without grace, as if righteousness were by works (Romans 9:31-32) is a failure to understand faith, where a person is believed to attain to the standards of the law by merit not grace, and the failure to understand that the law points us to the righteousness that Grace equips us for, misconstrues both the law and grace.

A god with no expectations, a god with no demands of righteous living, and a god who does not expect even demand holiness- is a god of lawlessness.  A God who labours in us and through us to fulfill the law by his strength equipping us to obey, (Philippians 2:13) now that is  God of grace!
A God we can only understand, by letting his word (the law) dwell richly in us, (Colossians 3:16) so that we may be blessed as we do it (James 1 and Psalm 1).

15 February 2015

Hang on!!!!

"Cough, Cough, Cough, . . .  Daddy!"  "Cough, Cough, Cough . . . Mommy!"

"Pink eye."

"Pastor, can you attend a meeting to help a family in town?"  "Pastor, can you arrange a meeting to work on helping parents and families?" "Pastor, what is the plan for the ESL class? . . . VBS? . . . youth retreat?

When can I get Baptized?

A few words to summarize the last few weeks.

Judging from the schedule, the last few weeks may be relatively tranquil.  I have Chaplaincy travels coming up, and a dozen or more projects that are developing in the community.

But the one thing that is constant at this point is change.

And change, no matter how good it is is hard.

Please pray for us in the coming months as we are going to have some hard conversations about what we can and cannot do with the people we currently have.

Pray for our newest believers that I would be able to get them grounded in solid discipleship principles, to keep them changing in positive growth.

Pray for us to make deep personal connections with our community.


Thanks!