Jesus is NOT a patch.

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.  No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins." Mark 2:21-22

Here Jesus is saying He is not just a patch for the current mode of religion (that is the Pharisees).  He cannot just be attached/fit in to their way of doing things.  Jesus was bringing something completely new and it did not mesh with the Judaism He found.

It is the same today.  Jesus is not a patch to be put on stale religious tradition.  The only way the two mix is if we drop useless traditions and let Jesus transform other traditions into what they were meant to be.  Take fasting for example.  If done as God intended, it deprives us of something physically necessary (like food), teaching us to rely on Him.  In the case of food, when we get hungry we are to turn to God and spend time in prayer with Him.  This should then help us remember to turn to God when we are in need, even with something as basic as hunger.

A few questions to ponder:

Have I become like old skins or old cloth?

Am I trying to hold onto both Jesus and some tradition He is asking me to lay aside?

Am I blindly following common protocol, or am I truly walking with Jesus?

Why has God pardoned me?

For Your name's sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. - Psalm 25:11

Did you catch that?  Did you see for who's sake David asked for his sins to be pardoned?  It was not for David's sake that he asked.  It was not so that he would live, or go to heaven, or benefit in any way.  He asked for the sake of the name of our Lord.  David saw that it is God's name that benefits when He pardons us.  It brings glory to, and magnifies, His name.  


We live in a very self-centered, individualistic culture and I would bet that many of us have never even considered this before.  To me this is another reminder of how much God has done for me and that my life is His.


How do you view God's pardon of your sin?  Do you see it as for your own sake so that you can have eternal life?  Or do you see it as for God's sake, bringing glory to His name?  Does (or would) viewing it as the latter change the way you live? As you consider this, look at verses 8 through 11.

⁸ Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.⁹ He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.¹⁰ All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.¹¹ For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.⁹ He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.¹⁰ All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.¹¹ For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. - Psalm 25:8-11 

God is our Stronghold

To whomever may read this blog I first want to apologize for the lack of posts lately.  I have had a rather crazy summer.  I joined staff with Campus Crusade for Christ and was in Colorado most of the summer for that.  Now I am raising support so I can report to my assignment with Cru.  The result of this is that I have not had much time or energy to sit down and think about my blog.  Anyway, I hope to start posting more now.

Along those lines, I was reading in Psalms lately and in chapter 59 David calls God his Stronghold three different times (verses 9, 16 and 17).  It struck me that David truly believes this and probably lived like it.  As I was reading this I realized I don't see God as my Stronghold.  This got me to thinking, "if I took this to heart and lived it out, what would change in my life?"  Well, here are a few possibilities:

1. Courage:  Fear would be diminished in all areas of life.  It would by no means be gone, but with God as my stronghold, it would be easily overcome.  Since God cannot be beaten, I can take courage and shove fear aside.
2. My needs are provided for.  A stronghold is stocked for survival in case of attack.  So even though I may not see how I can make it I just need to look to God and take refuge in Him.
3. A stronghold is not easily overtaken.  Except when there is internal fighting or betrayal.  With God, I can be confident He will never be overrun.  The only time I am in danger is when I let something lure me out of that protection.

There are more, but that is just a sample.  If you were to live like God were your Stronghold, what would that change?  What is keeping you from living like that right now?

Someone Else's Fruit

"Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain."  Phil 2:14-16

The part in bold rocked my world this morning.  I am not sure exactly what caused me to see this in a new way other than the Holy Spirit.  I don't even remember what the pastor said about this part.  But this is what I realized:

We (as Christians) are someone else's fruit.  Someone led us to Christ.  We have a responsibility to not only that person, but anyone who has helped us in our Spiritual journey, to not make their toil to have been in vain.

Yes, we have our own race to run.  And we must make sure it is not done in vain.  But by running our race so as not to be in vain, we fulfill our responsibility to the one who led us to Christ.  We cannot control what others will do with the toil we put into their lives.  Though we can ensure great joy and happiness for the one who led us to Christ just as Paul tells the Philippians.

We are the fruit of someone else's labor.  We owe it to them not to be bad/rotten fruit.

Here are some questions to ponder:

Who led you to Christ?
Who has had a major impact on your walk with God?
Are you living in such a way so that their toil will not have been in vain?

Rethinking the word 'spiritual'

(The idea for this post came from 1 Corinthians 12:1 -- 'Now concerning spiritual gifts...')

The word spiritual that is in the Bible has a very different meaning than what it now means in America today.  When people talk about 'spiritual' things now-a-days, they are referring to something invisible, insubstantial, supernatural, something beyond our world.  But to Paul the world spiritual means animated by the Spirit.  It is something real, something tangible, something physical, something the Spirit does in and through us.

The last few generations (though probably mine more so) is guilty of making 'spiritual' some loose, mystical, far out concept.  It scares a lot of people so we trivialize it to the point where it loses its significance.  Without even realizing it I have helped this along.  My guess is many others have as well.  When our focus tips too much to the here and now, we push spiritual things to the side.  When we try and relate to non-Christians by loosening up our terms/broadening our definitions (usually in trying to find common ground) we start to affect our own thinking about spiritual things.  So how can we stop this trend and help reverse it?  Here are a few tips:

1.  Be more selective in your word choice when talking to non-Christians.

2.  Realize that the Spirit is a real being and that His works are physical and tangible.

3.  Remember that we live IN the here and now, but we live FOR eternity.

4.  Surrender to the Spirit.

5.  Be careful in how you think about spiritual things.  It should not be done flippantly or as an after thought, but should be done with all seriousness.

6.  And remember, once we are a follower of Jesus, our entire lives (every aspect of them) are spiritual.

What do you think?  Do you agree/disagree?  Why?  What steps have you taken?

The Social Gospel?

At small group a few weeks ago we talked about something called the Social Gospel.  This is basically taking the Bible and using it as a means for social justice.  From what I understand, people who follow this focus solely on fixing social justice and ignore eternity thinking that if they can fix someones position in life here and now then that is all that matters.

To be blatantly honest, this is wrong.  This is not Biblical.  This is bad theology.  Granted, social justice is a natural byproduct of true Christians, but it is not the aim of Jesus nor should it be our only goal.  I think it is a valid thing to strive for but is of secondary importance.

Jesus did not come to Earth and perform miracles just to improve people's social position.  Yes, healing a leper or demon possessed person automatically elevates them out of being an outcast.  And healing the blind, paralytic, or lame automatically makes their lives better since they no longer have to beg.  But that is not why Jesus would heal them.  It was because they believed.

Jesus healed people not because of their social status and how He could affect that.  He did not do it just so they could have a more comfortable life.  He did it because they believed in Him (that He could in fact heal them) and because it brought God glory.  And it was very often coupled with the forgiveness of sins.

Just a few examples of this are:  Matthew 9:1-7, 27-29, Luke 18:35-43.  But look at any passage where Jesus heals someone and you will find a common theme of being for God's glory, not their comfort here on Earth.

What is of first importance is the person's soul and where they will spend eternity.  No matter what our station in life is, we can bring glory to God.  But if we are not saved by the blood of Jesus then regardless of how good our life on Earth is, we will spend eternity in misery separated from God.

Tuesday Morning Lessons Part 2

This morning I was up before the sun (and yes the sun was out today in Portland) to go to worship and bible study.  (And had to scrape the windows on my car again.)  Anyway, here are a couple takeaways I had from this morning.

2 Peter 1:3 says, "seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence."

The speaker this morning went into quite a lengthy description of what Peter is saying here.  However, the thing that struck me was when the speaker said that we have been given everything we need to live a Godly Christian life.  By His power, God has given us all we need to live a life for Him.  Here is an analogy: generally speaking a baby is born with everything it needs to live (brain, heart, lungs, mouth, etc.).  In the same way, when we were saved and received the Holy Spirit, we gained everything we need to live our new life in Christ (the Holy Spirit, a new self, and a new nature [if we choose it]).

2 Peter 1:4 says, "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."

We become partakers of the divine nature.  This divine nature is our new nature in Christ.  The problem is, our old sinful nature is still with us and is at odds with our new divine nature.  Living by our new nature is not a given.  We must choose to participate in it.  We must choose to live according to our new nature and not our old nature.  Do you truly participate in your new divine nature?  Or is your life just a string of isolated, shallow emotional experiences?

Go-to Verses

I don't really like the idea of a favorite verse or life verse.  There is just so many amazing, wonderful verses in the Bible that I don't see the point in saying, "this one is my favorite."  Instead, I like to have lots of different verses I can turn to in certain situations.  Here are a few of my go-to verses:

When I need a reminder of the importance of God's Word I turn to 2 Timothy 3:16-17 "All scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

I have found great comfort in almost any situation in life in Psalm 19:12-14 "Who can discern His errors? Forgive my hidden faults.  Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.  Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

One verse that often I use to remind me to turn to God is Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."


I really love the promises God makes to us.  When can't understand why something is happening or times are tough I often turn to Romans 8:28 "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."


I don't have a favorite verse.  I have go-to verses (and much more than just these four).

No one else posted a blog today.

Well, almost no one.  So I thought I should fill that void in my life with my own post.

This week I started a book called The Prayer Dare.  It is 40 days of deepening your prayer life using dares the author makes.  So far I have really enjoyed it.  The other morning he was talking about how God is strong and loving at the same time and that we should remember that in our prayers.  This reminded me of something John Mark said in his sermon Sunday when he was talking about balancing fear of God and awe of God.  That is, living in the tension between the incredible power and caring tenderness of God.  Then, as I was reading in Psalms later (that same morning as the dare) God brought this up again through David.  Psalm 59:16-17 says,

But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength; 

Yes, I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning, 

For You have been my stronghold 

And a refuge in the day of my distress.  

O my strength, I will sing praises to You; 

For God is my stronghold, the God who shows me lovingkindness.

David understands this tension and what it means to live in the middle of it.  For me this was a wake-up call from God.  I don't often live in this tension of strength and love.  But I should be.  So that has become one of the many cries of my heart right now: to live in the tension between God's strength and God's love.

This morning I was impacted by...

two things from 2 Peter 1:1-2.  First off, Peter calls himself a bond-servant or bond-slave (these are the same thing).  Back in the day Jewish law stated that, every six years, one must release all their slaves.  However, if a slave wished he could go to his master and request to become a bond-slave (that is, a slave for life).  At this point they would pierce their ear and put a ring in it symbolizing their choice.  This I already knew but the new part for me was the meaning behind identifying ones-self as a bond-slave.  In Western culture we think of this as being about the slave.  But it is really all about the master.  It's about giving glory to the master.  I mean, how awesome and caring and loving would someone have to be for his slave to wish to stay on for life?  Peter says this is how we are supposed to be with Jesus.  If we can become a bond-slave of an earthly master, how much more should we be bond-slaves of Jesus?

Secondly, in verse 2, Peter says '...in the knowledge of God...'  This is not just knowing about someone.  It is a personal, intimate knowledge of.  We are not just supposed to know about God but to really KNOW Him.  This is an even deeper know than the way we know a parent, sibling, spouse, close friend, child.  When you truly know someone you don't just know what they are thinking or what they will do.  You what causes their actions.  You understand their thought processes; their reason behind actions.  Peter says we should know God in this way but even more so.  We should be close enough to God that we begin to understand more than just the result of Him working.

Anyway, thats what stuck with me from this morning.