Fallen and Flawed

Do You Believe These Crude Things about Christians?

**Part of the Curmudgeon’s Guide to Sharing Your Faith series.**

“Christians are the most vulgar and uneducated people around. “

Tags: Convert, God

The John MacArthur Guide to Finding Your Purpose in Life

How do you take a basic, boring life and turn it into an active and thrilling one that pleases God?

A life so compelling that it sparks a revival? 

In 1973, John MacArthur wrote a tiny book called Found: God’s Will. In this book he lays out the six biblical principles to finding God’s will for your life. 

The book is only 61 pages long. Small, but powerful.

I read it in forty-five minutes. I then gave it away. Bought another copy, read it, and gave that book away. I’ve bought my third copy.

The book is that good. Here’s a summary of the six principles. 

The First Crucial Step to Finding God’s Will

If your life is at a dead stop with no future, it might help you to know that your first problem is probably sin. Unrepentant sin, to be exact. 

Listen, God owes you nothing if you neglect this first, biblical step: salvation. Until you surrender yourself to Christ and the cross, God’s not obligated to show you his plan for your life.  

Get right with God now and move on to the next step of finding His will.

Short Theology Lesson on the Spirit-filled Life

Your next step to finding God’s will for your life is to be spirit filled. 

What does it mean to be spirit-filled? It means to live a Christ-conscious life.     

What does that mean? Think about Peter. When Peter was near Christ he possessed miraculous energy, miraculous words and miraculous courage. Away from Christ, he slumped into self-pity and denial. 

But after Christ ascended and the spirit fell on Peter, we catch him in the book of Acts preaching with both barrels–despite persecution. 

What happened? Spirit filled is akin to standing next to Jesus. 

So…how do you get there? Easy. Know your Bible. MacArthur recommends reading 1 John everyday for 30 days. Then move onto chapters 1-5 in the book of John for the next 30. Chapters 6-10 the following 30 days. And so on through the New Testament. 

There are no shortcuts. Just serious, planned neglect of everything else except God and your Bible. 

Abstain from the Unclean

One of the great things about Christianity is that it lifts you out of the gutter. In the span of ten years I went from a single drug addict living in a friend’s basement to a writer living with a wife and two children in a quaint home. [Read the full story.]

God’s calling–God’s will–is that we be sanctified, holy, pure. That means subdue your body. Avoid sex before marriage. Stop the abuse of drugs and alcohol. Abstain from pornography. Treat others fairly. 

You are God’s holy instrument. Keep it clean.

Submission Silences the Critics

What is it that God wills you to do next? Submit. 

Submit to the President, boss, teacher, cop, mother. When you are the model Christian citizen, you silence the critics:

For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 1 Peter 2:15 

However, God does give you permission to rebel on two conditions: You may rebel against authority when you are asked to do something against God or forbidden to do something God commands. 

The Truth Behind Christian Suffering

We all want to be great. But in the will of God, greatness often follows behind suffering. 

Suffering is the Christian’s bedfellow. And by definition, true Christian suffering means persecution for doing what is right–not punishment for doing wrong.

To be in God’s will means to stand in the face of the world and lay down the hard truth of the Gospel. Don’t fear to offend. Throw caution out the window. Insults and threats may fly, but God will give you unimaginable excitement. And you’ll please him. 

The Final, Surprising Principle

So, once you are saved, spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive and suffering, what do you do next? 

Whatever you want. 

Yep, God wants you to follow your passion. You may have a heart for child soldiers in Uganda or prostitutes in India or your next door neighbors. It doesn’t matter what it is. Just get moving. And keep moving. God has the best ministries for his busiest saints. 

Conclusion

So, whether a gonzo style street speaker is your style or a subdued academic writer–have the courage and good sense to be safely in God’s will. If you don’t follow these six principles you’ll never find your true, God-given purpose in life. 

And if you don’t have purpose or meaning in life, what’s the point? Let me know what you think.

Image credit: Challis

Tags: God, Life, Principle

Seven Ways of Looking at God’s Wrath

**Part of The Nature of God: A Quick and Dirty Guide series.**

This may be a strange way of leading into Christmas–as was the post Propitiation in Plain English–but bear with me. 

Believe it or not, but the Bible is the book of God’s wrath. 

It travels from the banishment of Adam and Eve to the overthrow of Babylon and the great court sessions of Revelation 17, 18 and 20.

In fact, one of the most striking things about the Bible is how heavy both Testaments pour on the reality and terror of God’s wrath. 

Yet, something most people miss is this is the very context into which Jesus was born.

Thus, with Christmas so near, it’s not such a bad time to explore in seven ways one of the most overlooked aspects of God’s visit to the earth. First, let’s define this wrath.

God’s Wrath Is Punishment

In both Testaments, God’s wrath meant burning anger. Think  fury and rage. Hatred of sin. And indignation at all evil. It’s punishment, pure and simple.

God’s punishment is seen in hell. Jesus described hell as the final home for the unrepentant godless. That means hell is the final punishment for the wicked.

However, when Jonathan Edwards said, “God has set bounds to every man’s wickedness; he suffers men to live and go on in sin, till they have filled up their measure, and then cuts them off ” he was doing nothing more than echoing Paul who said that God gives wicked men and women over to their depraved minds to do with their bodies what ought not to be done. That’s God’s punishment here on this earth.

God’s Wrath Is Revealed

We all have a sense of impending doom.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Romans 1:18

Here’s the deal: The fear of God preserves the moral society of men. It sustains, protects and governs. However, take that fear away, and man descends into wickedness. 

Look at America: Each generation creates a greater gap between it and the knowledge of God. Each generation sinks deeper and deeper into evil.

Yet, the conscience will not let us rest. It is gnawing at us with the truth of sin and evil. We sense impending punishment. We sense God’s wrath.

God’s Wrath Is Discipline

In a nutshell, God’s wrath is His reaction to our sin. It’s an expression of His justice. Moreover, it’s correction of wickedness. 

Origen once said, “For that which is called God’s wrath and His anger is actually a means of discipline.” 

“If he has put thorns in your bed,” George Whitefield said, “it is only to awaken you from the sleep of spiritual death–and to make you rise up to seek his mercy.” 

Now, if you are toying with his goodness and have not come to repentance and faith in Christ–you stand under the severity of his discipline. The good news is that Jesus has come to deliver us from the wrath of God.

God’s Wrath Is Pure

Unlike human anger or rage, God’s wrath is never impulsive, unpredictable or self indulgent. Instead, it’s a measured and meaningful reaction to sin. 

Jesus himself–who actually had more to say on this subject than any other New Testament figure–made the point that punishment would be equal to what we deserved. It would never be more or less. It would be perfect. It would be pure.

God’s Wrath Is Necessary

Would a God who did not punish evil be morally perfect? The answer is no. It is necessary because he is: 

• Holy: You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong. Habakkuk 1:13

• Righteous: But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. Roman 2:5

• Jealous: Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. Ezekiel 39:25 

The sin of the incorrigibly wicked is sin against the eternal God. So, sin against the eternal deserves eternal punishment.

God’s Wrath Is Longsuffering

God’s long-suffering is a remarkable virtue. However, it doesn’t exclude or contradict God’s justice. In time, the kindness found in His patience and longsuffering is meant to lead you to repentance.

In fact, one of the greatest wonders of the Bible story is that the patience of God in giving us a chance to repent before judgment finally falls. Yet, God’s patience isn’t limitless:

…endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction… Romans 9:22

God’s Wrath Is Satisfied

Reading Romans 1-3 and you might come to the conclusion that there is no escaping the judgment of God. Yet, Romans 5:9 says this: “We have now been justified by his blood.”

In other words, Jesus’ death is a sacrifice that averts God’s wrath. And through the self abandoning trust in the person and work of Jesus, Jesus removes the judgment for our sins that is to come.

Why You Should Care about God’s Wrath

The more we contemplate and understand God’s vicious judgment on sin, the more we will see sin as the abomination that it is. It breeds a genuine fear in our souls for God. 

But understand this: The purpose of God’s wrath is not to destroy humanity. He disciplines His own people through his wrath with the desired end that they return to Him.

On the one hand, hell is the measure of the severity of God. It’s purpose is to influence us. On the other hand, Calvary is the measure of the goodness of God. It’s purpose is to comfort us.

And without the birth of Christ, we would have no Calvary.

So, let me ask you, have you ever looked at Christmas and thought about God’s wrath? Does thinking about God’s wrath make you cherish the birth of Christ more? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Tags: God, Jesus, Punishment, Sin, Wrath

Propitiation in Plain English

 

Haunted. Convicted. Blessed. Condemned. These are words that often describe people’s response to Jesus’ death. 

But before we can even talk about that, we first need to establish what Jesus’ death accomplished. We need to talk about propitiation.

What Did Jesus’ Death Accomplish? 

Propitiation. Big word. Probably means nothing to you. But this is the New Testament term for what Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished for you. 

You can find propitiation four times in the New Testament:

Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. Romans 3:25  

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 1 John 2:2

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10

Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17

What Does Propitiation Mean?

In a nutshell, propitiation means a gift that satisfies God’s wrath. Think thug offended because you flirted with his wife and won’t be appeased until you give him an island. 

That island is your propitiation. But that’s not really the way you want to think about this. 

Unlike the pagan conception of gods–moody, volatile and violent gods and godess, prone to punishing humans with disease, drought and death at the drop of a hat–God’s anger is not irrational or unpredictable. 

Neither is God inactive in this appeasement like pagan gods. God Himself stepped out on His own and provided the sacrificial offering that covers human sin and makes reconciliation possible. 

That’s propitiation. God took the first step towards us. 

The Overwhelming Problem of God’s Wrath

Propitiation–and the idea of God’s wrath–may offend some people. [Like Bertrand Russel. But he hardly matters, right?] They have a difficult time wrapping their head around the idea of a personal, loving God being so furious at them that they needed a sacrifice to avoid the terrible consequences. 

However, there are two good reasons to face this truth about propitiation:

1. The problem of sin. God is without sin. We are steeped in sin. And though God loves us, he hates sin. In fact, God is so profoundly troubled by sin that he feels both sorrow and anger over sin. Detests it. The Bible says God’s anger at sinners is so severe that He hates them. Even hides His face from them. So, by definition, a loving, holy God is required to be angry at sinners who destroy that which he loves. 

2. The problem of the Bible. Eh? This is what I mean: The Bible speaks of God’s anger, wrath, and fury toward sin more than His love, grace, and mercy. Nouns for wrath are used some 375 times to describe God’s anger in the Old Testament. And though less frequently, these words and concepts are found in the New Testament. 

Verses 18, 24 and 26 in Romans tells us that God’s wrath begins in this life. And the place of God’s unending active wrath is hell, which Jesus spoke of more than anyone in the Bible as an eternal place of physical torment. Mark Driscoll points out that Jesus described hell like someone getting flogged, butchered or burned.

Incomprehensible debt. Unconceivable punishment. No picture–not even my thug parable–could prepare us for the biblical experience of God’s wrath.

We have to deal with it.

Propitiation Is the Supreme Answer to God’s Wrath

But, because God is loving, merciful, and kind, He has chosen to save some people. So, to both demonstrate His hatred of sin and love for sinners, Jesus averted the wrath of God by dying on the cross as a substitute for sinners. 

That’s why salvation is defined as deliverance from His wrath. The anger of God is diverted from us to Jesus. What this does is show how Jesus fulfilled the OT system of sacrifices and thus replaced it with His own work on the cross.  

If you think about it, one of the most poignant pictures of propitiation is the Passover story in Exodus 12. The angel of death “passed over” all houses that had lamb’s blood on their door posts and lintel. 

In the same way, if you are a repentant believer who trusts in Jesus, your sins are covered by Jesus’ blood–that is, his death–and God passes over you in his wrath and judgment. 

Why Does Propitiation Matter? 

There are a number of good reasons to allow this seemingly abstract truth to penetrate your soul. 

1. Believers often punish themselves when they sin, thinking they are paying God back. Think hair shirt. Punitive fasting. What propitiation teaches is that the penalties for our past, present and future sins are taken care of. They are covered. Our response when we fall into sin is to simply ask for forgiveness. That’s it. 

2. Unbelievers often punish themselves because of shame and guilt. Think bulimics and cutters. Suicides and alcoholics. What propitiation does is wipe that guilt and shame away. Forever.

3. When we suffer, God is not punishing us. Sometimes it might be the case that he’s disciplining us so that we might grow in holiness. But never is he using suffering to punish us for our sins. That’s not what the Bible teaches.  

With Christmas looming, this doctrine seems all the more relevant to me. Think about it: The birth of Christ is the first step of propitiation.

Without the birth of Christ, we’d have no substitute. No sacrifice. No savior.

Tags: Anger, Death, Jesus, Propitiation, Sin, Wrath

My Salvation Story

**Part of the Curmudgeon’s Guide to Sharing Your Faith series.**

Most people’s testimony starts with a date. Possibly a time. Likely a location. Sometimes a person. Mine starts in much the same way. 

Late November of 1996, in Granite City, IL, my aunt led me to the Lord. Quite dramatically my life changed.

I stopped drinking, sleeping around and started going to church. I eventually met my wife, got a job, created children, bought a home and spent a lot of time at church: whether in worship, teaching Sunday school or acting in church-sponsored dramas. 

I was what you might call a typical Christian. But something was wrong. Very wrong. 

Destroying My Family

Throughout the first ten years of my so called Christian walk, I obsessed about one thing–and one thing only.

Becoming a world famous writer.

Much to the disappointment of my wife, this ambition took first place to everything else–my marriage, children, work and even church. 

To give you an example of what this drive did to me, I quite often found myself thinking that I would have to sacrifice my children for this ambition–and that it was quite natural to do that. That this was a necessary part of becoming a world famous writer–neglect your wife and children for the sake of art. 

Naturally I thought and worried about the tragedy my children would grow up to be if this came true–but I’d have to live with that. It’s the price I’d have to pay to become that world class writer. 

As I said, I was driven, single-mindedly, by one thing. And it wasn’t Christ. 

Woefully Detached and Rebellious

But that didn’t concern me. Should have. Just like the “check engine” light in your car, it was a warning that something was off. A warning that I wasn’t the person I said I was.

But I didn’t care.

Yes, I prayed the sinners prayer. Made a decision to accept Christ. Believed he died for my sins–even to the point that I agreed that I was a sinner and that confessing Christ as my Savior would get me a ticket into heaven. 

Don’t get me wrong–my mind bought into everything. But my heart was woefully detached and rebellious. I was, in a word, not a true Christian. 

How do I know this? On November 30, 2007, I got my clock cleaned in an awful way.  

The Day My World Collapsed

November 30, 2007, is the date that my wife discovered–quite innocently–that I had been unfaithful to her. Not physically, but emotionally.

Her world fell apart. As well as mine. In the heat of that day she said she wanted a divorce. I collapsed, overwhelmed by the reality of what was happening.

My father’s marriage ended in divorce. His father’s first marriage ended in divorce. As a product of a divorce–I vowed never to divorce.

But something so stupid, so silly as flirting with a woman who wasn’t my wife, was about to pull my world out from under me. 

What It Really Means to Be a Christian

On that day I begged my wife for mercy and in that begging I promised to give up everything that didn’t contribute to our marriage. Among other things, that meant I had to:

• Abandon my membership in the local writer’s guild. 

• End dozens of relationships with secular writers.

• Quit a publication that I helped start and even ran. 

• Lay down my ambition to become a world-famous writer.       

Naturally, I wallowed in a pit of anxiety as I struggled to find out who I really was.  

Only gradually, over time, did it dawn on me that this is exactly what Christ meant when he said, “If you want to follow me, deny yourself and take up your cross, and come after me.”

What I was experiencing was the very renunciation of life that is required to become a biblical Christian. But the most startling realization came in the months following November 30.

11 Biblical Tests of Genuine Salvation

During that time after November 30 while I read the Bible, listened to Ray Comfort, John Piper and John MacArthur and learned the basics of Christianity, I realized that for the last ten years I’d been deceived in thinking that I was a Christian.

How do I know I was deceived?

In the ten years that I thought I was a Christian, eleven things could be said about me–eleven things 1 John identifies as the difference between a true and false Christian: 

1. Rarely, if ever, during that ten years, did I experience a close relationship with God. 

2. I was insensitive to sin in my life. I managed to look quite pious and Christian on the outside while brewing with hypocrisy and unrighteousness on the inside. 

3. Rarely, if ever, did I obey God’s commands. 1 John 2:4 says anyone who calls himself a Christian but habitually disobeys God is a liar. 

4. Rather than rejecting it, I embraced this evil world. This evil world held the trophy I wanted–a reputation for being a world class writer. 

5. I didn’t despise the sin in my flesh or long for Jesus’ return. In fact, I despised and even doubted Jesus’ return.  

6. Sin did not decrease in my life, but continued and in some occasions even increased. The one who practices sin is of the devil. 

7. I hated fellowship with Christians. They annoyed me, irritated me. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer.

8. I rarely experienced answered prayer. Why? I hardly prayed…I didn’t know what to pray for…and when I did pray, it usually involved half-hearted, unbiblical, self-centered requests. A sure formula for failure when praying.

9. For most of the fruits of the Holy Spirit Paul describes in Galatians, I could say I lacked. For the rest, they were grossly underdeveloped. 

10. Didn’t know the difference between spiritual truth and error. I sorely missed  the skill of separating divine truth from error.  

11. And lastly, I rarely suffered persecution as a Christian. Frankly, I was ashamed of being a Christian, all to win man’s approval.

In summary, the trajectory of my Christian life during those ten years resembled a sinking line drive. 

What My Life Looks Like Now

Naturally, you’re probably wondering how I’m fairing this side of November 30, 2007. Right? 

Well, let me say this: there’s a gargantuan difference in my life. 

• I crave alone time with God. Get up at 4:30 in the morning to read my Bible. And think about and talk with God constantly throughout the day. 

• Not that I don’t ever sin–but now when I do sin, I’m horrified. 

• My heartbeat is to obey God. To gear my life around his Word and His work. I don’t always do what He says, but when I don’t do it, I can hardly sleep at night.  

• I hate the evil in this world. And when I am tempted, like I often am, I grieve over that temptation.

• My heart burns for the return of my Lord. 

• The sin in my life has taken a nose dive. And I’m more aware of the smaller sins that I typically brushed off as inconsequential. 

• I love the great Christian men in my life. I long to be with them. To study with them. To witness with them. And I despair over my weaker brothers. 

• I’ve got a better eye for what God wants me to pray for. And I’ve got a passion to pray for other people. Something you would’ve never seen two years ago. 

• My Bible study is expanding and I’m making inroads with people when sharing my faith that where never there before. Made possible by the Holy Spirit. 

• I’m acutely aware of spiritual error–in myself and others. 

• And finally–from flat-out rejection to more subtle accusations of stupidity–I’m suffering for Christ. 

Let me close with this–anytime someone tells me they are a Christian, I’m skeptical. Especially if they base their confidence in salvation on a date and a decision. 

So let me challenge you with this: examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith–something Paul urges all of us to do. And if you pass these tests, 1 John 5:13 says, “you may know that you have eternal life.” 

Listen. There’s no reason for you to spend your spiritual experience deluded or in the dumps. Yet thousands of Christians do.

Please, don’t be one of them.  

Disclaimer: Deeply indebted to John MacArthur’s tiny book Is It Real? for the eleven biblical tests of true salvation.

Tags: Christian, God, John, Life, World