Jesus the Man

Jesus fulfills many roles: Son of God, God the Son, savior, Good Shepherd. So it is not surprising that we tend to overlook Jesus the man. It is important that we spend time in the gospels to understand as much as we can about Jesus, for He told us to ‘Learn from Me, for I am gentle, and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls,’ (Matthew 11:29). What was He like? What kind of man was Jesus? We need look no further that the four gospels. Oftentimes Jesus would go off alone (usually to a mountain) to pray. Don’t you find it a revealing insight to the Son’s nature that He would pray? It is fascinating for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that it is one of many examples of Jesus practicing what He preached.

We know that Jesus many times corrected and castigated people, but it is illuminating that those He corrected were not those viewed by the world as sinners (and tax collectors, whom he instead recruited), but the so called religious leaders of the day. The Pharisees and those of the religious order the Sanhedrin, were often forced to endure Jesus’ harsh reprimands, for they were corrupt and hypocritical, honoring the traditions of men instead of the commands of God. So Jesus was not afraid to judge (with righteous judgment, John 7:25), as this act brought to light the deeds of darkness and the hypocrisy of those working in opposition of God’s will, who were proclaiming their own righteousness.

Jesus had a temper! Just look at His reaction to the fig tree when it failed to provide Him lunch. Or read about his reaction to those dealing with money at the temple. I would love to have seen my savior flipping tables over and yelling at the moneylenders. But always His anger was directed towards those who disrespected God’s will, and it was always designed to inspire conviction and change.

Jesus had a tender heart. His disciples were the most blessed (and pressured) men in history. They received His direct teachings and corrections, but also His love. Though Jesus knew Judas would betray Him, He did not give the man a hard time, and it almost seemed as if He were pleading for Judas’ very soul in the garden. Same goes for Peter when He informed the poor man that he would deny Jesus. Jesus could have looked at Peter with disgust and disappointment, but instead He proclaimed His confidence in him that Peter would become the rock on which His church would be built.

Look at the man Jesus in the wilderness. When He was tempted by the devil, did Jesus use supernatural power to repel Satan? No. He quoted scripture! Isn’t it incredible that the savior who was prophesied throughout the OT and whose teachings and life history dominate the NT should quote scripture to defend Himself against the wiles of the devil?

He was a poor man, never owning anything more than the clothes on His back, which buttressed His teaching of the difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

All in all I think Jesus was the sort of man I would be honored to have as a friend. He does not judge based on personal faults but on willful disobedience to our God. He practiced what He preached. He displayed righteous indignation towards those who dishonored God. And He displayed fierce loyalty to His elect. And it was as a man that Jesus endured the crucifixion. What I mean by that is that He did not call on His supernatural nature to endure the agony of His passion or to dull the pain, and He did not use His power as God the Son to free Himself from the cross, as He so easily could have. He bore the punishment for our sins, as no other man could or would. He received and receives all the glory in heaven as the Son of God, and yet He chose to leave that—for a short time—to come in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:6-8).

Who Is God?

Colossians 1:10 teaches us on how to be proper Christians: ‘—that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.’
I underlined that last section because it is something sorely missing in church today (generally speaking—I understand there may be proper churches out there, somewhere). It seems obvious that to understand how to be proper followers of Christ we should learn of Him, and yet teachings on the nature and person of God do not seem to be a priority for our teachers these days. Perhaps one of the causes of this travesty is the blasphemous New Thought ideology expounded (most notably) by Osteen. Osteen is quoted as saying: ‘I have found that people are not interested in theology . . . they just need to know how to live’! Theology being the study of God, this declaration is clearly contradictory to the verse in Colossians. IT IS UNBIBLICAL. Osteen and most other preachers today are attempting to sever learning about God with learning how to live, or to put it another way, they deny the relevance of learning about Christ for the modern person. From his own lips this false teacher says he is not interesting in teaching about God.

If we are not increasing our knowledge of God, we are not fulfilling our duties and obligations to our Creator. We are failing as believers.While incompetent or false teachers are partially to blame for this failure, we are without excuse, for what can be known of God is evident among us (Romans 1:19-20). If your preacher does not increase your knowledge of God, then you should be taking it on yourself. Don’t turn to other works to understand who God is; every book ever written about God is diluted through its author’s opinions and biases. Turn rather to God’s Word and to God in prayer, thereby will you increase your knowledge of Him. Don’t count on your teachers, pastors, or friends to educate you in Theology 101. And don’t lean on your own understanding, but acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will direct your path (Proverbs 3:5-6).

 Ezekiel Chapter 34 speaks out against these false shepherds; ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?’

If your pastor is not teaching you about the nature and person of Christ, then he is not feeding you as he should be. If he stands up on the pulpit and holds in his hands any book other than the Bible, and teaches out of this substitution, then he is not feeding you, he is failing you, and you owe it to yourself and to God not to subject yourself to his wayward messages.

Going back to Colossians, this time chapter 2 verse 8, we are given a heads up on the techniques of these false shepherds: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of this world, and not according to Christ.’ Wow, notice how timeless and relevant this nearly 2,000 year old message is today.

Osteen and his ilk would have us learn how to live without knowledge of Christ and yet the Bible makes clear that such teachings are empty deceits, based on worldly principles, and that they cheat us of our heavenly birthright.

So let us turn to Jonah chapter 4, to increase our knowledge of God. The fourth chapter reveals a very tender loving side to our God, which is truly revelatory when considering all the wrath and destruction this same God brings in so many other places in the OT. God tells Jonah ‘You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which are 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?’

Here we see that God did not want to destroy the people of Nineveh, though their sin was great. He had pity on them, much in the way Jonah pitied the plant, though God’s pity is justified because He has labored over the people of Nineveh, He created them and fed them and raised them up. He cared for them, because though they did not care for God, they were still God’s creations. What love is this we see! And then, as if that wasn’t sufficiently moving, God even points out that He wanted to save even the animals of the city! Here we learn that God will go out of His way to save even those who turn their backs on Him. This is knowledge well worth discovering, something I much prefer to learn about than how enjoyable my pastor’s latest cruise to the Bahamas was.

Spend time in God’s Word and with God in prayer, for that is time well spent.

Can You be a Christian Outside the Local Church?

Is it possible to be a Christian without the church? This seems to be a hot-button question lately. Almost every time I tune in to a Christian radio station, the pastor is telling me how important it is that I get my butt into a local pew, else I ain’t no real Christian. So are they right? Is it possible to be a Christian without a church?

When considering this question we must clarify what we mean by ‘the church.’ During apostolic times, the body of Christ and the church were one and the same, but the same cannot be said today. The body of Christ is the community of believers devoted to God’s Word, living lives of humble service to mankind, especially to those who believe (Galatians 6:10).

Pastors these days fail to acknowledge that churches can and often are corrupt and full of false teachings. While attending and contributing to a loving church dedicated to following God’s Word and educating us in the knowledge of God can be a wonderful experience, the truth is that not all churches are like this. The church is comprised of people, Christians, sure, but people. Like all people, they are corruptible. Leaders and teachers in the church often act and teach as though they are above human deficiencies, as if the church as an institution is immune to the weakness called sin, that whatever it does and whatever it teaches is good. Humans are fallible—that includes Christians and church leaders.

It is partially because of the church, its Christians and leaders, that my father no longer attends church. Their corruption and judgmental attitude towards one of their own drove him out. Perhaps once, in apostolic times, the church was a place of almost universal integrity and righteousness, but today it is a breeding ground for the greedy and the ambitious. Those with enough charisma and a sly tongue can slither into the pulpit and twist God’s Word to suit their purposes, teaching lies and corrupt versions of the truth (2 Tim 4:4), while padding their bank accounts.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many good churches out there, small places where God’s Word is taught by humble, righteous men. But there are just as many dens of thieves and megachurch millionaires.

In the Bible we find numerous verses referring to the church as the body of Christ.

Here’s where the devotees of the You-can’t-be-a-Christian-outside-the-church theory make their mistake. The ‘body of Christ’ indicates the kingdom of believers, each individual a member of the body, and each blessed with their own gift, a manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). Now, there are many members but one body, each member equally vital to the function of the body. The Word emphasizes the importance of believers communing and working together with other believers, being of one mind, admonishing us to walk worthy of the Lord, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10). This can mean the local church, but it does not discount believers (members) outside the local denominational house of worship. 

If the local church does not itself walk worthy of the Lord, and fails to increase our knowledge of God, then it is no longer a functioning member of the body of Christ, and we are faced with two choices.

We can leave the local church (and search for one that loves the Lord and boldly teaches His Word), thereby liberating ourselves from false teachings and from the poor examples of lukewarm religious folk, or remain and strive to be the example its people obviously need. Striving as one small voice in a large crowd can be intimidating, and more often than not your voice is drowned by the masses, and teaching may not be your particular gift in the Spirit anyway. Still, it is a sad thing to have to walk out of a church. This is where prayer, and waiting on the still small voice of God comes in handy (1 Kings 19:12).

1 Corinthians chapter 14, Ephesians chapter 5, and Colossians chapters 1 and 4 provide richer and wiser guidance than I can ever hope to offer. In conclusion I will say this: you can be a Christian outside the local house of worship, but attempting to be a Christian apart from other Christian’s (members of the body) altogether is a fool’s errand, like grasping for wind. We need fellow believers to keep us upright (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10), to sharpen each other’s Christian minds (Proverbs 27:17), to exhort and encourage one another in the faith (Hebrews 3:13) lest we be deceived and fall to sin.

A fortune passes through the church; as an institution it is therefore prone to greed and deceit. Just look at the scandal of 2002 with all those priests, or take a peek into the lives of your church deacons; are they taking numerous vacations, lavishing themselves with expensive toys like luxury cars and boats? Money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some stray from the faith (1 Timothy 6:10).

Attending and contributing to a loving church dedicated to following God’s Word and educating us in the knowledge of God is a wonderful experience. On the flip side, a church whose members have grown complacent and prideful can be not only unpleasant, but it can endanger your spiritual welfare.

Don’t let the local church cow you into thinking you are not a Christian just because you’re not a member of its elite congregation. You are a member of the body of Christ, who is the head of His Church, if you abide in God’s Word, obey His commands, and seek out the company and companionship of other true members of His Church.

But don’t take my words as gospel. Turn to the scriptures outlined above and decide for yourself the answer to the question.

Faith Amid Mass Shootings

What does it mean to have faith in God?

At first sight this seems a pretty basic theological question, but my pastor doesn’t seem to have the answer. He’s too busy telling us jokes, anecdotes, and regaling us with tales of his latest cruise. Webster’s Dictionary defines faith as: ‘A complete trust or confidence.’ And it’s not that far off. Having faith in God means to not only trust in Him, but to be fully convinced—and comfortable in this conviction—that God knows what He is doing.

Think about that.

Do you really believe that God knows what He is doing? It is a difficult place to reach, this apostolic level of belief; it requires a deep reverential respect for God, and a profound spiritual maturity. (Unbelievers refer to this as extreme naiveté, or blind faith.) To believe that God knows what He is doing in a world filled with terror, where mass shootings and infanticide have become daily occurrences, is not an easy place to reach. And if we are completely honest with ourselves, we will confess that, mostly, our words and our actions suggest we do not trust God with the running of His world. Faith in God is more than simply believing in His ultimate goodness. It is accepting that just because we do not understand, does not mean He doesn’t.

In order to reach this State of Faith, we would have to accept one simple but profound biblical truth: God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). He does not think as we think. God knows everything concerning the past, present, and future, and so His understanding and actions are not limited by ignorance, as ours are. These days we try to simplify God, shape Him to fit into our narrow worldview. We want a God we can understand, a genie-in-a-bottle God who showers us with riches; a boiled down God who basically lets us run amuck; a simple God who is more akin to Dumbledore than to divinity. But we must understand that God is not man. In fact, He is more akin to an alien species than to the human race in His knowledge and comprehension of reality.

‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts,’ (Isaiah 55:9).

God does not think the way humans think. For this I am grateful. I would not want to worship a God who is prone to faulty human reasoning and beholden (there’s a fun word) to simplistic human nature of greed and corruption. So while we do not understand why a good God would permit these daily atrocities, these personal and public tragedies, God does. If you can accept this difficult but profound truth, you are on your way to learning how to have real faith in God. (Such uncomfortable teachings are rarely taught these days, a failure on the part of our teachers that partially explains our ignorance of God’s nature.)

The second act of faith is to obey. Trust and obey (like the old hymn that we no longer sing, for no reason at all). Obedience, or the drive to obey, comes from trusting that God knows what He is doing amid the chaos and carnage of daily human existence. We obey because we trust. Obedience to God’s word is then an outward act of faith and love, evidence of our trust in Him. It is not easy. Christianity is not easy, no matter what the name-it-and-claim-it life coaches would have you believe. The Bible makes clear that the life of a Christian will not be all sunshine and butterflies. It also makes clear that God has a reason for our trials, for our suffering. We trust that He understands the tragedies that make no sense at all to us.

I don’t know why my grandfather, the humblest, most faithful servant of God I have ever known, was forced to endure three years of Alzheimer’s and other terrible afflictions before passing on. Why would God let His faithful servant suffer? I don’t know, but I trust that God does. This helps me to accept the things that are beyond human comprehension. I take comfort in knowing that my God is not limited as I am limited.

When you come into this place of complete trust in God, you find a peace there that cannot be explained, that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7). It might not even seem logical to outsiders. But it is a wonderful thing to understand that God is still on the throne, that He knows what He is doing.

But don’t take me at my word. Turn to God’s Word—everything else is just opinion.

Joel's 'The Power of I Am': the Good, the Bad, and the Funny

Like you, I have heard the arguments from both sides concerning Joel Osteen’s gospel. He has devoted fans on one side and harsh critics on the other. In the hope of seeing (and knowing by his fruits) for myself whether or not his message is biblical, I read his best seller The Power of I Am.
In the reading of his words I learned three interesting facts about Joel Osteen. One: he is a very optimistic man, the sort of person you'd enjoy being around—and he is even occasionally funny. Two: he is perhaps the cleverest self-help guru in the business today; he knows the fear and darkness that has gripped the heart of America, and he knows how to release people from this fear and turn them back towards a light. Three: throughout the entire text Osteen displays a profound familiarity with exactly one aspect of God’s nature.

To better examine his teachings at my leisure, I took copious notes during the reading of Osteen’s book; in the page link ‘The Power of I Am?’ to the right I delve into these notes in detail. Through them I address both the biblically useful teachings and the locations of the precise deviations of Osteen’s gospel from that of God’s Word.

As usual, I have attempted to keep my stupid opinions to a minimum and allow God's Word to speak for itself.