 Three Raspberry Cheers for Hello Kitty . . . and the Postmodern Lie
Most of you know that I am a confirmed Bible, history, and worldview nerd. That is why when I arrived at work today to the shock that Hello Kitty’s questionable identity was a “breaking news story” by many, I found myself in a quandary as to whether to be amused or in be despair. Before I receive emails telling me to lighten up or to realize what is meant as tongue-in-cheek humor, let me make a few introductory jabs at this entire fiasco. If Hello Kitty is a little girl, I feel for her now that she is in her 40’s and still wears a full length kitty costume (or is it a kitty costume?). If Hello Kitty is not a cat, then is it possible that I should be concerned about the prescriptions I have from Dr. Dre? If Hello Kitty is not a cat, should I be horrified to learn that Taylor Swift may not be either a pop or country artist, but rather a punk rocker who dresses in an understated way? Please forgive me for these - but I hope it does show that I do grasp humor - well at least I think I do. Actually I may have just engaged in horribly depressive hate speech disguised as humor? Who knows any more? I hope that this exercise helps you understand my main point in this article. I do not care who Hello Kitty is - except that, come on folks, that’s a kitty! But in our postmodern world in which truth is in the eye of the beholder, your kitty does not have to be a kitty. In order to get a ton of free press, as well as increased sales of Hello What-ever-you-are (which I believe should be the new “truth in advertising” ruling against Hello Kitty), all you have to do is make an outlandish claim that what is clear to everyone, everywhere - is actually a 40 year old, clever ruse. (Note: by the way I think Hello What-ever-you-are is better than Hello Creepy-40-year-old-cat-dressing-freak - don’t you think?) But back to my point about our postmodern society. This entire situation is actually a good example of our postmodern thinking. Imagine with me this entire story back in the 1960’s and 1970’s. People would not have probably even considered arguing that their kitty was not actually a cat because it stands on two legs, and it has a pet cat named “Charmy-kitty.” (Boy is that a future cover story waiting to be written - “Charmy-kity” confesses to being a cat trapped in a dog’s body!”) But I digress yet again - sorry folks but this one truly brings out the sarcasm in me. Let me get to my point. Postmodern thinking says, “What you believe to be true, is true.” It is true because you believe it to be true. No one has any right to tell you your beliefs or practices are wrong as long as you think that are true, are not hurting anybody. This has what has paraded for truth, or I guess at least anit-truth, for years in our educational systems, as well as among certain philosophers and deep thinkers. But there is a problem here - and I would like to use a well-known children’s story (although it can be a bit racy) to illustrate my point. Enter the emperor, stage right. As he enters, it is apparent to all that the man is completely naked - as the day he was born. There are all the tell-tale signs that he is naked - such as - well . . . nakedness. As he rides or struts across the room, showing off what he thinks to be his new duds, all the post-modern ones in the crowd collude with him about his nakedness. They oooh and ahhh at the latest in minimalist fashion (yeah, minimalist is an understatement for a guy who should at least have on underwear) as they all agree together to lie about their ruler’s current unclothed state. Now for my personal million dollar question. “Is this guy naked?” Maybe we should listen to the tailors who tell us that he is not naked. They assert that he is clothed in kingly splendor no matter what he is wearing. We are also told that clothes do not make the man. We are chided that our view of clothing is outdated, pedestrian, and nude-phobic. We need to get with the times so we can understand why we have such a narrow definition of clothes. I can tell you why I have that narrow definition. It is because the king in the story WAS NAKED! It does not matter to me what he or anyone else there believed - naked means, not having on any clothes. He does not have on any clothes, therefore, he is naked. Now, having put a huge bullseye on my back that I am woefully out of touch with current trends (For which I daily thank God - Who’s Word IS truth - and Who has also defined nakedness pretty clearly in the Scriptures. By the way, He also defines who we should see naked - which is an incredibly more narrow list than what the world currently embraces.) I would like to comment on Hello Kitty for the last time, and then hopefully make a point concerning epistemology (Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.) Hello Kitty is a cat. Granted whatever weird version of a cat in a cartoon form is eventually agreed upon - that is a cat. People have bought into Hello Kitty for years as a cat, and since I’ve never seen a zipper on the cartoon version - or any of its multitudinous money-making products - I’m gonna go with the whole cat idea. Why wouldn’t we think Hello Kitty is not a cat? We are engaged in this ridiculous news story - and the ensuing ridiculous commentary (mine included) because the creator of Hello Kitty believes that his Kitty is not a cat. In earlier (non post-modern enlightened decades) we would have written this whole thing off as a story illustrating someone who needs to re-take Biology 101. Or honestly, we would have shrugged and thought that the creator of this cartoon, albeit very gifted at kitty drawing, takes his cartoon a little too seriously. But in our post-modern society, this is what passes for a tongue-in-cheek breaking news story. Yet, here is what disturbs me a little. We have been led to believe by post-modern thinking that if someone believes something is true - then it is true and we should let them hold that belief without criticism. If that is true, why is it that those who believe in God are treated with greater disdain than the Hello Kitty creator? There is actually epistemological support for belief in God according to classic apologetics. Even widely held philosophy has valid arguments for the existence of God. Yet, in spite of all this, bible-believing Christians who hold to the existence of God are being treated as if they are some sort of factually challenged freaks. If you really want to see an escalation of rhetoric, look at what is being said about those who say homosexuality is sin according to God’s Word - or that life begins at conception and what is in a woman’s womb is not just a blob of tissue, but a living child who deserves adequate protection from harm. There is where the lie of post-modern thinking is exposed. You see, it is perfectly reasonable to defend Hello Kitty. What is utterly indefensible according to many in our society today is bible-believing Christianity. What is indefensible is anyone who believes in the exclusivity of salvation through Jesus Christ. What is indefensible is the audacity of believing that there are 10 commandments applicable to the morals of present day society. And thus the facade of post-modernism is revealed. What we have here is not a philosophy that embraces all views, but rather a pseudo-philosophy that embraces the Kitty - but throws out the dangerous idea that God might actually exist. Now there is a breaking news story!
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 Awe and wonder . . . two words that perfectly fit any view of God. But in a world that thinks too highly of itself, populated with fallen people who seriously think too highly of themselves, awe and wonder do not describe the average response to God, Who has revealed Himself to us in Scripture - and His creation. And if I were to be completely honest (which hurts as I admit to my own sin of pride and over-aggrandizement of myself personally - and humanity corporately) I do not respond to Him nearly enough with the kind of awe and wonder that He deserves. At times I sing songs about His greatness with little more than yawning excitement - and even more sinfully - with a sense of wanting to get on with it so I can move on to other things more exciting to me. In an age where we make much of man - and even more of ourselves - the whole concept of being lost in wonder and awe of God is dangerously waning. And please understand I speak not of the world at large - but of those of us in the church.
There are two words that should show up often in our vocabulary when seeking to give any kind of description of God. The first of these words is the word "awe." We speak of things that, when we see them or experience them leave us awe-struck. That means the shear magnitude and majsety of them render us speechless because we are not sure there are words adequate to describe what we are seeing or experiencing. God, being both infinite and eternal, should be One who leaves us utterly speechless because His majestry and limitless magnitude are beyond human words or concepts. That is where we reach back to get our second word, "wonder." When I looked up wonder at Dictionary.com, the following definition began to take shape in my mind. Wonder means to be filled with admiration, amazement, or awe. This sense of wonder often illicits surprise, astonishment, and in some cases worship or adoration of what has caused our wonder. The God Who has revealed Himself in the Old and New Testaments - and Who is also revealed in what He has created, is a God Who can fill our hearts and our minds with both awe and wonder. There is no way to adequately define or describe Who God is. One way that we can touch the fringe of His boundless, infinite magnitude is by looking at nature - most specifically - the heavens. Since the discovery of the telescope, we've enjoyed a view of the heavens that expands as quickly as we can upgrade the ability of our telescopes to see further and further into space. The information below was originally printed in John MacArthur's commentary on the book of Matthew. "The more man delves into the universe, the more amazing and awesome the wonder of creation becomes. Telescopes can take us some four billion light years—about twenty-five sextillion miles—into space, and yet we have not come near the edge of the universe. We have discovered certain gravitational principles that keep the stars and planets in their orbits, yet we are far from fully explaining those principles, much less duplicating them. The earth spins on its axis at a thousand miles an hour at the equator, travels in a five-hundred-eighty-million-mile orbit around the sun at about a thousand miles a minute, and, with the rest of its solar system, careens through space at an even faster speed in an orbit that would take billions of years to complete. The energy of the sun has been estimated to be equivalent to five-hundred-million-million-billion horsepower. There are at least one-hundred-thousand-million other suns in our galaxy, most of them larger than ours." (John MacArthur, Commentary on Mark) What is even more amazing to me after reading that again, is that MacArthur's statement is just a small paragraph, because there is enough to know about our universe to fill an entire library of books. That is after we've spent 100's of years looking into space. The truth is our knowledge of the universe is ridiculously limited at the present time. If we had instruments and ships that could take us far out into the universe (even into our own galaxy to be honest) our knowledge would grow exponentially! To give you a perspective on how much we should be in awe and wonder of the God who created our universe, allow me to focus on one star within it. Granted, at the moment (due to our lack of a telescope powerful enough to see it) it is the largest star we know. Nevertheless, let's talk about the star Sirius, or Canus Majoris. This largest of all stars known was most recently measured at around 1500 solar radii. If you were like me, you had no idea what a solar radii was. It is the measurement of how big our sun is. That measurement is approximately 432,450 miles (to go from the outer edge of the sun to its center). If you want to know how far it is around our sun - that would be approximately 2.72 million miles (quite a walk - and take sunblock over 50 because you might get a sunburn!) Just our sun is so huge that it blows the mind to comprehend its size. But we speak of Sirius (Canus Majoris) which is now approximately 1500 times the size of our sun. Now I know that you are tired from that recent walk around the sun (and a little burnt probably) but you need to suck it up - because now we're going to walk around Sirius - which would be 4.1 billion miles give or take a mile or two. Forgive me for using this comparison - but it will give you a little better grasp of how large this star is. Imagine our earth is a basketball. Compared to our sun earth is a little smaller than a popcorn seed. In order to get something as large as Canis Major you would have to have a ball that is over half the size of the Empire State Building. Let me put that into perspective for you. That height is larger than the full height of the Superdome. So we are talking about a ball bigger than the Superdome itself (try jumping high enough to dumk that sucker into a basketball rim that can fit it!). Another way of describing the size of Sirius is that if we put it into our solar system (starting at the center of our sun) its outer edge would reach beyond the orbit of Saturn (although some think it extends beyond that to about the orbit of Jupiter). That is HUGE! But . . . this is only 1 star, albeit the largest one on record to date. There are trillions times trillions more stars in our universe - all of which have been placed in orbital movements that conicide with each other with greater precision than that of a well choreographed ballet. It truly is incredulous to an infinite degree how men can think this is all a random cosmic accident! I've taken all this time - and verbiage - to hopefully get you to stand in awe and wonder of a single star - in a galaxy filled with billions and billions of starts - which is in the midst of millions of other galaxies - all moving in such synchronization that we set our clocks by its movement. God created all this by His infinite power and wisdom. He did it so that they would proclaim the glory of His great name! Thus this mere creation of the genius and limitless strength of our God is itself infinitely inferior to Him - the One who spoke it into existence. It required no over-exertion on His part and its creation was no drain on either His intelligence or His might. He is beyond its existence and could as easily consume it entirely with one additional word spoken to utter remove it to little more than an afterthought flying quickly through our minds. So please . . . the next time you consider the God of your salvation - the God of creation - the God of eternal, timeless existence and infinite, measureless magnitude . . . do so with awe and wonder . . . oh, and a little reverence might be in order too (just as an infinitely understated suggestion). And one other thing . . . this coming Sunday when you meet with the saints to sing of the God of your salvation - remember Sirius, Canus Majoris - or by its common name, "The Big Dog!" When you do - and you also meditate on the fact that God created this giant ex-nihilo (meaning out of nothing) as He spoke the world into existence (By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:3, NASB), we will be moved by His Spirit and the truth to sing and worship Him with both awe and wonder! Or, in a euphamism more familiar to our current age, "Let the 'big dawg' speak, and when you feel him - get crunk as you worship God off the hinges." (Yes, I know that just exposed me as a really old white guy trying to look cool - sorry, couldn't help it with the star being named, "the big dog.")  Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord remind you this week that He has NOT forgotten you - nor will He ever forget you as one of His redeemed children! Have you ever thought that maybe God has fogotten you? Have problems arisen and surrounded you to the point where you really wonder if God has just forgotten you and no longer remembers you or hears your cries? Some might be tempted to think I only say this from a lack of faith - or from not seeing the facts (the biblical ones) properly. But the truth is that many of God's choicest saints came to this point in their lives. In fact, I have come to the point where I am a little shocked if those who are following hard after the Lord have not experienced this. David experiened this when he wrote, "Why O Lord do you forget me? Why O Lord do you hide Your face from me?" in the Psalms. Moses cried out to God, "Do not take us up from here unless You Yourself go with us!" Job had searchings of heart that go beyond anything any of us have experienced - and many of them had to do with whether God had left him or not. This is far from a rare experiece. In fact, the godly men and women of earlier times called these experiences, "the dark night of the soul." What do you do in these "dark nights of the soul" so that you do not give up in your pursuit of the Lord? The main thing you do is turn to Scripture and find reassurance in the promises of God that even as He hides Himself for a period of time - He has not - nor will He forsake you. Today I was reading in Isaiah and came upon this amazing promise. "But you have said, 'the LORD has forsaken me, and the LORD has forgotten me.' Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold I have increibed you on the palms of my hands . . ." Isaiah 49:14-16, NASB When God's people had wondered if God has forsaken and forgotten them, God made it clear that even if a brand new mother could forget her nursing child - He would not forget His people. What this means is that you would see all the mothers in the world forget their newborn infants before you would see God forsake and forget His people! What a wonderful promise. That means every time you look at a mother with her newborn - and note how much she loves that little baby - you can be assured that God feels similarly about you. When you see the light on at 2 or 3 in the morning because that mom is totally committed to caring for that little one - you can walk out into the night or day knowing that with an even greater commitment God cares for and loves you! But there is an even more amazing statement made here in Isaiah 49. In verse 16 God tells us that He has "engraved" or "inscribed us on the palms of His hands. The word that God uses here for this means to cut, inscribe or pierce. How do we know that God has not forgotten or forsaken us? Literally - there are inscriptions on the hands of God Himself that will forever remind us of how much He loves us! What are those marks? They are nail prints in his hands that God chose NOT to heal as His Son, Jesus Christ, was raised from the dead. The disciples saw those glorious wounds of eternal love after He rose from the dead. Jesus told Thomas to put his fingers into those nail prints to realize that it was truly Jesus that was before him. The price of our forgiveness and salvation is forever etched into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we ever need proof that God has not abandoned or forsaken us - all we have to do is look there. That statement - that commitment - that price that was paid - and those wounds that He bore and bears to this day - forever speak to us that He will never leave us or forsake us! Let me close this article with the words to a hymn that we sing. Crown Him the Lord of love Behold His hands and side, Those wound yet visible above In beauty glorified. All hail redeemer hail, For Thou hast died for me! Thy praise and glory shall not fail Throughout eternity! - Matthew Bridges - Dearest redeemed ones of God, know that He loves you! He will not forsake you - nor will He forget you! He has loved you with an everlasting love, and has drawn you to Himself with lovingkindness. He loved you long before you ever thought of even acknowledging Him. While you were yet a sinner - even in the moment when you were your very worst - Christ died for you! (Romans 5:8). His love for you is and never has been because of your performance or your level of recent obedience. You are forever graven on His hands. Those wounds - now glorified in heaven - are there not as a reminder of your shame and disgrace. They are there for the glory of God - who has loved you forever - and who will love you for an infinite number of forevers as time marches outward to the vanishing point and beyond! If you ever doubt this - just remember to look at His hands - and know and rejoice that you have been inscribed there for all eternity! The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17
I want you to listen today so that you can hear something. In order to hear what I want you to hear – you will have to pay attention to what is happening in the spirit world. If you are not careful to do this – you may miss hearing this wonderful song. When was the last time someone sang because of you? Some women have the joy of having a troubadour come beneath their window and serenade them with music and song. When this happens, the woman is most often touched by the gesture – and she feels very loved. But not every woman is fortunate enough to have someone do this for her. I read a passage today that pretty much blew my mind – and made me know that I am very loved. Please note that I avoided the phrase, “felt like I am loved,” because it was wholly inappropriate for what happened. I KNEW I WAS LOVED! Here is the kicker, though . . . YOU CAN KNOW TOO! The prophet Zephaniah spoke of something God was doing – and would do. He was working wonderfully with His people – and He was “saving” them as a result! What a glorious thing this was – and still is! But even more glorious than this is how God reacts to His “saved ones” in whom He is working. There are two sounds I want you to hear – and the fact of their occurrence is verified here by the prophet Zephaniah. The first is that the God who saved you is rejoicing over you with great gladness! There is something you need to hear – God is rejoicing over His saving work in your life. As you grow in grace, as you grow in your understanding of Who He is, as you grow in your faith, and as He sanctifies you more and more (and this is even as you struggle and fail and have difficulty) God rejoices continually in what is happening in your heart and life! He is thrilled over the ongoing changes that are happening in you. But there is more – and this is what truly amazes me. God sings over you! Remember the beginning of this article? The prophet Zephaniah revealed to the people of Israel – and to all those who would experience God’s salvation in the future – that God sings over us. For those of you who maybe doubt God’s love – He is not singing to blues either. The word used here is very instructive to us. The word for singing here is “ranan.” This is a Hebrew word that means a ringing cry, a loud shout, or loud, almost rambunctious singing. The idea behind the singing and shouting is that jubilation is at the core of it. God sings for joy – filled with jubilation and excitement over how He saves us! He is rejoicing because of His grace. We read in Ephesians 1 that the marvelous salvation God has given us should be seen in the context of “the praise of the glory of His grace!” That is what is happening here. God is singing and shouting jubilantly not because of some great thing in us prior to salvation. He is singing and shouting because of the very glory of His grace given to us. He wants to sing for joy because how we’ve been redeemed – and how that redemption reveals the love and the true character of God. Oh, what a thrill to see grace at work, and it is such a thrill that God Himself is moved to song over it – and He sings over us as that grace is revealed in our salvation and transformation. I remember reading that the angels sing and shout for joy when a sinner repents. This is even more awesome – that God Himself sings all through the process of our salvation. I want to offer a word of great encouragement to all those reading this. God loves you! He loved you enough to provide blood – the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ to pay for your sin. He loved you enough to give you, as a gift, the very righteousness of His Son so you could be acceptable in His sight. He loves you throughout the rest of your life as He sanctifies you - drawing you to Himself – changing and transforming you by His grace. He loves you and longs for the day when faith shall be sight – when the very presence of sin will be taken away at your glorification. He loves you so much that He sings loudly with shouts of joy over the salvation He watches at work in you. So the next time you wonder how God feels about you – oh, dear saint of God, listen. Don’t listen for what you can hear with your physical ear. Listen with the ears of your heart – listen with your spirit – read the Word of God, Zephaniah 3:17 especially, but read with understanding and grace the glorious truth of His singing. Listen for you will hear the exalted Lord of the universe sing of the grace that has been lavishly applied to you. He sings for joy – shouts with great gladness. He does so because more than you can know, more than you can imagine, and more than you can ever comprehend . . . He loves you! “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
“… he upholds the universe by the word of his power. …” Hebrews 1:3 Modern computers and computer games give many useful examples that point to what God said thousands of years ago. Of course, life is not a game and God is not a computer. But, Jesus often used every day things as examples of God’s truth. Like a painting or statue, a computer game “world” is just a weak imitation of the real world. A computer image of a sunset may be complicated to make and beautiful to see, but it is nothing compared to the beauty, power and genius of a real sunset. In spite of that, let’s do some comparisons. In a computer game, the computer can make an electronic “world” where game characters can move around in game “places”, use game “things” and talk with other game “people”. The computer is the creator and upholder of the game world, in a sense. The computer can exist and work without the game, but the game can’t work without the computer. Likewise, God doesn’t need us, but we are totally dependent on Him. So, it was known long ago, “… In him we live and move and have our being …” Acts 17:28 If the computer closes a game program, the game stops going. Likewise, human life (and the universe itself) can’t exist without God constantly holding it together. So, it is written, “If he [God] should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.” Job 34:14-15. In other words, God could “close the program” of human life and it would immediately stop. If a game character could think, he could know about the computer by being told about it and even by details about his game world. Again, it is written “… his [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. …” Romans 1:20. So although we can’t see God directly, there are things that are known about Him by what He made. But a character could not step out of the game to experience the computer directly. From the game character’s point of view, the computer would be both far away and at the same time the closest thing of all. It would be everywhere present and nowhere visible. In fact, the computer would also go beyond all bounds of the game world. It would be separate from the game world, but the game world could not be apart from it. This is very similar to what was written long ago, “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.” “… he [God] is actually not far from each one of us,” "… heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you [God] …” Jeremiah 23:23-24, Acts 17:27, 1 Kings 8:27 Since the computer makes and upholds the game world, it not only supplies the power for them, but it must know and keep track of every detail whether large or small. God also knows all details, as was said long ago: “He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.” “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” Psalm 147:4, Matthew 10:30 Though the game character can’t come out of the game world to see the computer, the computer could show itself in the game world as an image that the character could see and partly understand. God did something like this by temporarily appearing in a pillar of fire, or like a man or some other form, but the greatest way was in Jesus Christ. Though God forbade people to make an image of Him, He provided a living image of Himself in Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “… the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us … No one has ever seen God; the only God [or Son], who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” “… [Jesus is] the very image of his substance …” John 1:1, 14, 18, Hebrews 1:3 (ASV). God can do anything except deny Himself (see 2 Timothy 2:13). God will not stop being God. A man could never become God. But, nothing stops God from becoming a man if He wants to be both God and man at the same time. God permanently became a man in Jesus, but He didn’t stop being God. Maybe something like a computer could be the computer and yet keep a permanent image of itself in the game world at the same time. So, the Bible teaches that Jesus existed before His human birth and that Jesus is the Creator & Sustainer of the world. If you want to know your Creator, who has all the answers for life & all the power to live, you need to know Jesus. (Bible quotes from ESV except as noted) Did you know that God loves you so much . . . that He will break your leg if necessary? Let's explore this for a few moments now - shall we?
"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."" It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Hebrews 12:1-11 - There are situations that will overwhelm us - and make us lose heart in our battle against sin. - We fight these battles two ways - remembering Jesus' conflict AND - Remembering God's discipline . . . and this is a very strong possibility for us if we are sinning currently in some way. We should ask a simple question if we are involved in a besetting sin. Is God disciplining us though all this - or another way - are we miserable in this sin? - If that is the case - rejoice! He is working with you to train you to hate sin - and love Him. He is absolutely committed that you will not have ANY lasting joy in sinful choices. Sin provides no real, lasting joy - maybe something momentary - but nothing lasting. The things is when God is dealing with us - our enjoyment in sin will be far, far less. God is disciplining us - spanking us if you will - or as the text says, "He scourges every son He accepts!" (Whoa - scourging - isn't that what they did to Jesus before the cross? YEP!) - God does this so that as we are TRAINED by it - there will be NO JOY or ENJOYMENT of sin - and a growing disposition to only embrace righteousness. God graciously ruins us for sin - so that the only place we will find joy - is in HIM! - The passage tells me He does this - He spanks the FOOL out of me - so I will be a sharer in His holiness. Oh, yeah, I remember all "the fool" that needed to be lovingly disciplined out of me - because, unlike all the other really godly people in the world - I have a great deal of "fool" in me (sarcasm alert!). Actually, we all have a tremendous amount of "the fool" in us that often can only be dealt with by having it revealed to us - then exposed in our actions - and eventually crucified by the cross. The "fool" in us will never submit to God - nor can it - the fool in us (also known as flesh) is opposed to God and His Word - it won't and it can't submit to God. Those controlled by the flesh (or the fool in us) cannot please God. Sooooo . . . I cannot please God as long as I subscribe to being a fool and acting the fool by turning to self rather than turning to Him. - So glad for the last part of this - NO DISCIPLINE IS PLEASANT FOR THE TIME, BUT PAINFUL! - When I read this, I thought, Hallelujah! at least God knows this whole process is kinda painful! But keep reading . . . BUT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TRAINED BY IT - uh oh - there is a training process going on? Yep, there is - to simply spank a child without a training process is just beating a rebellious little toot - but God is working toward something! He is seeking to get the "fool" out of us. He wants us to live by His grace and strength - not by our flesh - or "the fool" in us. AFTERWARD IT YIELDS THE PEACEABLE FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS! This is what God is going after in this process. Just a quick question for anyone in besetting sin (as if I do anything quickly!). You at peace right now? (your answer is NO - I know this because I've been where you are!) Obedience yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness - disobedience yields painful discipline - and a general sense of, "this stinks!" Now here is the kicker. When Christ bought you from the slave market of sin - and made you a son through Jesus Christ . . . God bought you for the purpose of owning you (which He does anyway) - but now as a son. He who began this work in you . . . WILL COMPLETE IT UNTIL THE DAY OF CHRIST JESUS! What does this mean? It means, that God is actively going to ruin you for the world. You belong to God . . . and He is GOING to finish what He has started in you. You can either enjoy this journey - and learn to obey Him - or be miserable for the rest of the process. The fact is He is utterly committed to you - to make you like His Son. He will do this even if He has to make you miserable in the process - even if He has to make your life one that is filled with problems - difficulties - disasters - roadblocks - and even to the point of breaking your bones (remember the lamb that is around the shepherd's neck - yeah - that was the one who would not quit wandering off. The GOOD shepherd would break that lamb's leg - so that it had to be around his neck for weeks. The shepherd did that so that the lamb wouldn't be killed - and so that he learned the shepherd's voice better than any other in the process - which, by the way, was why David prayed in the midst of his sexual sin in Psalm 51, "let the bones which You have broken rejoice.") Yep - God will even break your leg, if that is what it takes to finish the work of His grace begun at salvation. That is where I will finish today - with the verses directly after the ones I've been quoting. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Hebrews 12:12-13 Brothers and sisters in Christ, God will break your leg to have all of you! Don't make Him do it. Believe me, He will! He has done some things - or better said - allowed some things to train me over the past 30 years of knowing Him. Learn to be strong in Him - and let Him get "the fool" or '"flesh" out of you! He is only doing this because of how much He loves you. But please know this . . . His love is strong! He WILL pursue you. Getting involved with Him through salvation is the best thing that has ever happened to you! But it is a love that is so strong - that it will take your breath away - and at times . . . even break your leg. |
Biblical ArticlesMost of these articles are taken from the Calvary Courier, a weekly newsletter that is sent to the folks who attend Calvary Chapel Jonesboro. Due to the response to these articles, we've decided to print some of them which proved to be very helpful to God's people at the fellowship. 
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