Reminder of Rescue

Whenever God tells the children of Israel not to fear because He rescued them from Egypt, it is a reminder of two things. The first is a reminder that they were once slaves and are now sojourners. This reminder humbles and brings low. Slaves are owned and do the work of their master. That ownership has been broken and they are now sojourners doing the work of God. So their ownership changes along with their direction, existence, and work. The second is a reminder that God is the one who rescued them and now leads them. This establishes a position of thankfulness, reverence, and fear. It also gives reason to have no fear of what God asks them to do. He is the one who not only now owns them, but is the one who freed them from a seemingly impossible situation. Why fear anything once rescued? Why doubt the leading of the one who blessed you? As Christians, we can think in the same way. The one who rescued us from bondage is the one who now leads us. Why fear persecution or trials being owned by Almighty God? Fear only the one mighty enough to save you. No longer slaves to sin, but now sojourners in a foreign land. Follow Christ, and do His bidding. For confidence, boldness, and peace, look to these reminders.

Taste of Vomit

We pick and chisel at sin, thinking if it be less frequent that we've had some type of victory. Not that sin would cease in this life, but that our salvation would be made sure by a distaste and disenchantment with our most favorite sin. O that Christ would sweeten our tongue making sin taste like dung.

You Are Dying

If we would remind ourselves daily that we are dying then we would see through the veneer fog of the present and press forward for what is eternal, for what is to come.

Death Was Necessary

Jesus coming changes the need for death as punishment commanded so often in the Old Testament. He died the ultimate death and underwent the ultimate punishment. So the death, genocide, and stoning of the Old Testament should make us look to Christ. I'm sure the men and women of Israel looked forward to a time when all the death and killing was no longer necessary. God warned Adam that death would be the result of sin, and so it was. The Old Testament doesn't make God a tyrant, it makes Him someone who honors His word. And in honoring His word and promise, Christ came, removing the need for death and providing a way to defeat death. This makes Christ all the more beautiful. He is the answer, He is the fulfillment, He is the ultimate solution. So when people question God's goodness because of what happened in the Old Testament, they are ignoring glaring facts: death was the necessary result of man's actions and God was keeping His word. And secondly, Christ came as a gracious solution to man's problem.

Fear Evil

To admit evil exists only to use it as a reason against God's existence must be a truly frightening position. In one quick swoop a person claims something dreadfully awful exists with no context of ultimate good to place it in. What sort of horrendous fear must slowly grow deep within those who affirm evil yet deny God? It is like saying, "There is deadly poison all around me, and that's proof there is no antidote!" At any moment evil can touch you, and what is your antidote? Well you just claimed there isn't one. You better walk lightly on the thin ice of life.

Conquerors or Cattle

In a discussion about entertainment on Tim Challie's blog, a commenter said the following (I edited slightly):

"I only have to work 38.75 hours a week. When I come home I have my meals made for me and my house cleaned. My clothes are laundered. I have music played for me and books read to me. The only thing I really do is chew my own food and bathe and type on a computer. I’m only a brain and a pair of typing hands. In comparison to just about anyone from any civilization across time, I’m a cow, coddled and fat."

The person who made this comment was obviously using hyperbole, but the more I read it, the more it became unsettling. It reminded me of a sermon by John Piper where he reflected on how he was initially worried that in ministry he would primarily encounter Christian men who ran their homes like over bearing dictators. He was shocked to find the opposite problem in what he described as, "A remote control, a bag of potato chips, and feet propped up." This was alarming to me when I heard it, but with just a glance at America and I knew it was true. God help us... help us to be different, courageous, and diligent. Are we conquerors or cattle?

Explain Evil?

To seek an explanation for an evil event is a natural response, but it is passively an attempt to legitimize evil itself. Rather than weep and mourn as we should, we seek an answer with the commonly asked question, "why?". Lets pretend for a moment that a satisfactory answer could be found. Upon finding it would it not deepen the wound by stating, "Ah, see, this terrible thing can be explained away." It would kill compassion and numb every emotion directed toward evil. Mourning over an evil would seem foolish and would be denigrated by the sought and discovered explanation. But the plight of man has been and will be, till Christ returns, to seek to legitimize and explain away evil, especially our own.

Supernatural Fact

"Astronomers now find they have painted themsevles into a corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in this cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover. That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact."

-Robert Jastrow

For the record, this man was not a Christian, but an agnostic.

A Common Problem

The common bond between all men is that we eventually die. Every part of us fights against this fact; hospitals, medicines, doctors, etc. Man does everything he can to sustain life and prolong the time before death. So man has a common problem. But doesn't every problem have a cause? If so, what is the cause for this shared problem? And also, doesn't every problem have a solution? If so, what is the solution for this common problem?

An Accurate View

Without an honest and true view of ourselves, we will never aspire after God. It is knowledge of our sinful estate that makes us discontent. Discontentment will almost always lead to searching. Since God is the antithesis of our depraved state, He becomes alluring to us. The phrase, "irresistible grace", takes on a deeper meaning in light of this. Could a starving man resist a warm meal?