Another New Creation in christ!

I wanted to share a wonderful praise with all of you.  A lady from work recently came to Christ!  I had been working with her for a while, as she was working toward entering the shelter’s long-term recovery program.  We talked often about the gospel and scripture, as I fully believe recovery can’t begin until someone truly knows Christ.  Her background was Catholicism and she struggled with the concept of grace, always feeling that there was something else she had to do first.  She would say the correct words, but as much as I could know someone’s heart, I felt as if there was no true knoleege or understanding there, and there was no joy.  Last week, she came to my office unexpectedly with another staff member to tell me, with such joy, that she had accepted Christ!  She told me how she came to understand that what she had thought of as salvation, didn’t match up with scripture and that God had shown her the meaning of his salvation and grace!  I can’t tell you how overjoyed I was!  I would see her throughout the day, telling as many people as would listen about her decision, the joy was so evident!  Thank you Lord for using me and all the staff at work to share with her and for allowing us to see the results!  I got to see 1 Corinthians 3:6-8 firsthand: “I planted the seed, APolllos watered it, but God has been making it grow.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.”  Please pray for her as she starts this walk, pray that she will allow the Lord to teach and grow her and that she will desire his Word and truth all the more each day.

Never on Leave

When Jesus was ministering here on earth, there was a time when he desired to be alone with his disciples for a while, so they sailed away from the crowd to another location. But the crowds ran by land, and were waiting for them when they got there. Jesus could have been annoyed. He could have sent them away and told them not to bother him. After all, he deserved some time to himself, right? And that is what he went there for. Yet, Jesus had compassion on the crowds, and ministered to their needs.

I just traveled to South Carolina for a few days to be with my family for the funeral of my great grandmother. It was time of prayer, rejoicing, remembrance, and refreshment. In the airport on the way home, I saw a large number of Mormon Missionaries. Their uniforms and name tags not only advertised their need to hear the true gospel of of Jesus Christ, but also meant that starting that conversation would be easy. I was pricked in my heart. I knew my duty...but why now? I was on a break. This was a time to grieve, and to recoup. A time to reflect and renew my own strength. I almost let the opportunity pass. I went on through security without talking to them. But once again, Jesus had mercy on them when we would not. The Spirit of God convicted me, and when I saw them waiting at the gate for their flight, I thanked God for giving me a second chance. I went over and spent some time sharing the gospel with them, and challenging them with the truths of the scripture. It was a good conversation, and they talked with me right up until both our flights were leaving and we quickly parted ways in a last minute dash to our separate gates. It was a challenging reminder to always have a compassionate eye out for opportunities to meet the needs of and share the good news of Jesus Christ with anyone with whom we can find opportunity. It is not wrong to need time to ourselves, or to slow down once in a while, but that can never trump the compassionate heart of Jesus Christ. It MUST never trump that in our lives!

Well, I am back in town now, and should shortly be posting the next installment of the "firm foundation" series. Thank you all for your prayers and support. God bless you all.

Luke
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Rain Dance

I recently had a conversation with a young woman at work that really caused me to think.  I was asking her what she believed when it came to God.  She said she considered herself to be a backsliding Christian.  When I asked her to explain that to me, she used an expression that caught my attention, she said that “every time she would get saved” things would go ok for a while, then she would fall back in to old addictions and habits.  As we talked, she described a pattern of going forward at church, getting baptized, (usually at the urging of family/friends), going to church for a little while, then being tempted by a friend to go back to her old lifestyle of drugs and alcohol.  This would repeat over and over again.  When I at one point asked her to explain what she meant by “saved” she simply described events, walking down the aisle at church, praying and then being baptized later.  After learning all this I spoke with her at length, trying to explain that having a relationship with Christ is not a one-time ritual, but it is a continuous, growing process of your very heart, mind, attitude and perspective being changed by Christ who is now living in you and is in control of your life.  I can only pray that God will use my words and show her the difference between her idea of “saved” and what scripture tells us.
Honestly what her perception of salvation reminded me of is the idea of a pagan ritual, one where if you go through all the motions correctly, then you make the god happy and things start to go better for you.  During points in the conversation, she would talk about how her circumstances weren’t changing and that she had expected them to after she’d been saved.  It really saddens me that somehow she had the idea that the amazing gift God offers us through the sacrifice of Christ is nothing more than a one-time ritual that if you do right, then your external life circumstances will suddenly change and that’s it.  there is no heart change, no surrendering to Christ as lord, just a quick fix.  She knew the phrases, “sin” “Christ dying on the cross” etc… How did the gospel become so twisted in her mind?  Coming to Christ is anything but simply a few words you say in a prayer and a quick walk down the church aisle.  It is a realization of the evil person you are before God and with that an understanding that you are utterly and hopelessly condemned before a holy God. You deserve nothing but hell, but God loved you enough to come in the man Jesus Christ to completely take your punishment.  If someone, by the Holy Spirit, comes to truly understand that, then their response is total surrender and repentance and a desire for Christ to come into their life and completely change them.  Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20 that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.”  Why does he say crucified with Christ?  We need to understand that when we repent and surrender to Christ, our old self, with its thoughts, desires, motives, and its will, are dead.  It is all crucified with Christ and in its place is Christ living in us.  It is that Christ-life that brings about the heart change, not the words of the prayer or the church building etc.  Paul again makes this point in 2 Corinthians 5:17 where he says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  Paul is again talking about the new life in us through Christ, that it is his spirit that makes us a new creation.  Both these passages, when you read them in context, are not talking about a new life or a new creation based on our outward circumstances, but rather a deep, fundamental shift in what (or rather, who) we are living our lives for!  Please pray that this woman, and honestly many others I have talked to at work, will come to truly understand the message of Christ.  Please also pray that I and the rest of the staff will be gold and able to communicate it effectively, through the words God gives us.

Ashley

Long DIstance

            I will be heading out of town for a funeral for the next few days, and plan on continuing the “Firm Foundation” series when I get back, but I did want to take a little time to write about a very long distance conversation I had yesterday. I had the blessing of being able to chat online with a sister in Christ living in a closed country in Asia that I had the privilege to visit years ago. Though it is a place where Christians are persecuted, where idols are openly worshipped everywhere, and where a powerful government keeps the impoverished people in check all the days of their lives, there are passionate followers of Christ there, and a deep thirst for him among many of the people who have not yet heard. I sought to encourage this sister while we talked, but it became quickly clear that she was the one who was to encourage me. Her overwhelming joy and commitment to God, and her unwavering faith in spite of the trials, filled the conversation with words of praise to God, and reminders of what it means to be faithful to him! Am I as committed to God, here where I am free to be, as she is where it can cost her everything? Am I as fervent in my study of his word, here where I own many copies of it, as she is in a place where owning a Bible in her own language is illegal? It was an encouraging and challenging conversation, and such a blessing to me! May we never forget in prayer our brothers and sisters who are suffering in foreign lands for the gospel we so often take for granted, and my we strive, if possible, to be more like them.


Luke
Jude.three.blog@gmail.com

A Prayer Request

Tonight, three LDS missionaries sat down with us in our living room for what turned out to likely be the last of our weekly discussions. We have been meeting with them for several weeks now, and after dealing with what the Bible says about what the gospel of Jesus Christ is (a subject terribly misrepresented in the LDS faith) we found ourselves in the all too familiar discussion of spiritual experience and how we can know truth. This week, they showed us a prophesy of Joseph Smith trying to prove that he was a true prophet and that the Mormon Church was truly of God. The "prophesy" (found in D&C 87, if you are interested) supposedly foretold the civil war before it actually happened. But did it? It did say that the northern and southern states would go to war, but it also predicted that countries like Great Britain would get involved, that the war would be "poured out on all nations" and that "after many days slaves would rise against their masters." Not to mention it's prediction of plagues, earthquakes, and ultimately the end of days. When I pointed this out, they tried to say this was partly talking about other wars and events still to come that are entirely unrelated to the civil war, but this does not fit with the flow of the passage. We went back through it verse by verse, looking at the relationship between one event and the next. First they shut down (one young man's jaw literally dropped), then they tried to just shrug it off and move on, finally they became defensive. We reminded them of the Biblical standard in testing a prophet. NO failed predictions. Not to mention the fact that D&C Section 1 promises that ALL of the book is FROM THE LORD, and also specifically claims that EVERY prophesy within will come to pass. Even one false prophesy, and Joseph is a false prophet. If Joseph is a false prophet, then the LDS church is a false religion. We are COMMANDED in scripture to TEST prophets, spirits, and any message that claims to be from God. We urged them not to ignore these things, but to obey God's command and search these things out. We challenged them to take God's word seriously, in spite of how they might "feel" about testing Joseph Smith as a prophet, and to really deal with the fact the if Joseph Smith really did prophesy in God's name things that did not actually happen, then he is a false prophet, and they ought to put man's tradition aside for a real relationship with the one true God. They listened to us, but left left us fairly sure we would not see them again. We hope that is not true, and ask that you all pray that God will get through to them and open their eyes to the truth. Thank you all, and God Bless.

Luke and Ashley
jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Firm Foundation (part 2)

            Though old ruins had been documented and written about by a few upper class authors as far back as the 1500s, Archeology as an organized and credible science began in the mid 1800s. For the next hundred years, it was believed by many that Archeology had proven the Bible to be full of errors. Rulers mentioned in the Bible had no parallel in the archeological record. Many people groups mentioned in the Old Testament simply could not been found. There was little evidence that many of the miraculous events of the Bible had actually happened in real history. The Archeology of the day was leading people to one conclusion, and the Bible clearly taught a different one. What was the Christian to believe?

            Fifty years later, the story has changed. Over the next several decades, archeology made a series of incredible breakthroughs. Many new cities, new inscriptions, and other new great discoveries were found. So what have these new findings done to criticism of the Bible? Of course, many archeologists will still say it’s a collection of fables, but they no longer have the same REASONS for doing so. Cities of the Bible have been found. Rulers mentioned in the Bible have been confirmed. Even miracles of the Bible have been evidenced. Whole books can and have been written on how modern archeology has vindicated the Bible’s claims in incredible ways. Rather than write you such a book here, I have included a link to a series of videos recorded on site in the British museum in London that actually SHOW you some of these finds and explain their significance! I strongly encourage you to watch them all, and see for yourself the wonderful truths of the Bible unearthed! The series is in 22 small parts, and some are much more striking than others, but is WELL worth you time to watch the whole thing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEKoU1IbGjM

            So what does that tell us? The more Archeology finds, the more the ancient world it unearths begins to look like the one the Bible told us about all along. So do we now start believing the Bible because of archeology? No, The Bible was clearly ahead of Archeology the whole time! The Bible has even been used as a source for Archeologists to FIND ancient cities! Am I saying that Archeology is bad? Not at all! Through archeology, we get to see and understand history in wonderful ways, and as Christians, get to rejoice and seeing all the great things God as done! I LOVE living in the age I do, when archeology has unearthed such amazing things about ancient people all over the world! I love getting to know details of ancient cultures, some of which can increase our understanding and appreciation of certain Biblical passages. Archeology can be a wonderful tool in the Christian’s hand. But, my love of Archeology is built on my foundation of Biblical truth. The sure and solid rock of divine revelation! Archeology may demonstrate Biblical truth today, but the Bible was just as true a hundred years ago when archeology did NOT demonstrate this. The archeological method of historical study is wonderful, but it only points to the fact the Bible is the more solid foundation of truth!

Can this be said of other “scriptures”? Those of you who watched the video series saw a few examples dealing with the Koran, so let’s look for a moment at the Book of Mormon. It was also written before the birth of archeology. In the same amount of time it has taken archeology to find the Bible to be powerfully accurate, the Book of Mormon has continued to come up wanting. While the Bible is used as a source of discovery by many researchers, even by those who don’t believe it to be God’s word, The Book of Mormon is still waiting for something to BE discovered. The more we have learned about the history of the North American continent, the more UNLIKELY the Book of Mormon events appear to be. The technologies, languages, ancestry, animals, geography, and culture presented in the Book of Mormon could not be more alien to what we actually find. Not a single place or event of the Book or Mormon has actually been found. Believers in the book will try and point to Mayan and Aztec ruins as evidence, but these are civilizations that arose over a thousand years after the Book of Mormon events are supposed to have occurred. There is not a shred of evidence that any great city building empires existed before them in these lands. We also DO find conflicting information. The Book of Mormon, for example, claims the honey bee was brought to the Americas by ancient settlers thousands of years ago, but in fact we KNOW who introduced the honey bee, and, well, it is much more recent history. Now, this does not PROVE the Book of Mormon wrong any more that 1920’s archeology that was in doubt about the Bible PROVED the Bible to be wrong. What it does is show a distinction. The Bible is known to be a SOURCE of truth, where the Book of Mormon is still unable to demonstrate that it CONTAINS truth. While we see Archeology have to give up its objections to the Bible one by one the more it learns, we see the objections to other scriptures only grow. While one can follow the details given in the Bible and make discoveries, scriptures like the Book of Mormon give us no clear road map, and the every place they do describe does not match up to anything we see anywhere. So, again, the Bible stands unique, and we can be confident that what we have in scripture is from God, and is our anchor of truth in a world of doubt! In my next post, we will broaden our scope and look at science in general, as many critics of Christianity today say that science has made the Bible irrelevant. It is vital for us to know that this is not the case, and that the Christian does not have to deny or fear science to remain confident in Biblical truth.

Contentment

During my two years so far at the shelter, I’ve met a lot of different people coming from a variety of circumstances and backgrounds.  I’ve sort of become used to the stories and attitudes that I see there; I don’t mean to say that I’ve become ok with everything difficult that I see, but I find that I am usually prepared for most of it.  I recently met a couple though, that honestly caught me off guard.  They weren’t aggressive, disrespectful, or rude; if I had to summarize them in a few words, it would be that they were completely and utterly discontented, and yet were entirely unmotivated.  They had left their hometown because of dissatisfaction their life and came to the shelter in a different state, but when they were presented with the reality of what it would take to improve their situation, they opted simply not to.  They ended up moving on to another city and what makes this story so sad to me is they are now back with us at the shelter.  They have a different worker, but apparently nothing has truly changed, as they are desiring to go back to their original starting city.  I had really never seen this before, such a lack of desire to move forward and such a dissatisfaction with everything in their life.  This discontent spilled over into their marriage, into almost every interaction with staff, and into every accommodation or service that the shelter provided.  There seemed to be a problem with literally everything in their life. They are not satisfied with their room, with their meals, with each other. There is literally nothing in their life they are remotely content with!


I’m writing all this because this couple’s mindset has caused me to think a lot lately about contentedness and what that looks like in my life as a follower of Christ.  What came to my mind immediately was Paul’s thoughts on this very issue in Phillipians chapter 4 11-13: “… for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”  I love that Paul doesn’t make any exceptions to this, he clearly states any and every circumstance, there is really no room here for “but you don’t know about” or “but you can’t imagine…” etc.  And if you read in Acts, you see Paul was hit with a huge variety of circumstances and people in his life, but he continued to do God’s will.  How?  He sums it up in one simple sentence, that I sometimes feel is mis-used: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”  What is the “all this?”  Paul has been talking about contentment during this passage, it seems to me he is clearly and to the point defining “the secret” of his contentment and that is only through Christ.  It’s not through Christ and… but only through relying on Him and His strength.  In other translations it may say “I can do all things…”  I feel like this can cause this verse to be not completely understood; I’ve heard people quote this verse when referring to passing a test, winning a basketball game, doing well on a job interview.  I don’t mean to say that God can’t or won’t help you with these life scenarios, but we need to be careful and not miss the specific context and the message that Paul was trying to get across.  He’s talking about being content, in every situation, and that is clearly the “what” that he can only do through Christ!


After all, Christ was the model of contentment and desiring His Father’s will, Paul talks about this in Phillipians chapter 2 5-8: “With your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!”  What a model!  I mean if anyone had the right to be discontented, it would have been Christ!  He sought the Father’s will above all else and found contentment there.  Only our relationship with Christ can give true meaning and purpose, and without purpose, there is no true contentment.  We have been given the most incredible gift: the ability, even though you and I are evil to the core, to come and be a child of God!  This was given to us by the selflessness of Christ!  In that knowledge, in this gift and hope that this gift brings us, that is where and how we find contentment.  Paul earlier in Phillipians chapter 4, gives an awesome outline of what this looks like or how it is put in to practice, starting with an all-familiar verse: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!”  What are we taking joy in?  Not our circumstances, the people in our lives, our belongings, but in the Lord himself!  If we wondered what that would look like in our life, Paul goes on “Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  And what will this rejoicing in the Lord and the impact of that on our life (gentleness, prayer/thanksgiving) result in?  “and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  What a wonderful picture, praise God!


Please be praying for this couple.  Pray that they will come to understand the truth of Christ, that they will stop simply reciting clichés and seek to understand what they are saying.  Pray that they will come to find true rest and purpose in Christ.  Pray for myself and all the staff, that God will use us in some way to minister to them. I don’t want their second stay at the shelter to be just another pointless, dissatisfying thing in their life.


Ashley
jude.three.blog@gmail.com

Contact Info

There have been a few of you that have had questions for us, and have had trouble contacting us with them. Our E-mail is jude.three.blog@gmail.com. Thank you to all of you who are praying for our ministry efforts!

- Luke and Ashley

Firm Foundation (part 1)

            Recently I was having a conversation with a couple of Jehovah’s witnesses. Though they and I obviously disagreed on many vital issues, we were agreeing with one another about the centrality and authority of God’s Word, which we both agreed was the Bible. They spoke of relatives who doubted them on this point, and how they did not understand how someone could doubt that God spoke through the Bible, and that the Bible was complete and sufficient. Having affirmed this, I began to show them from the scripture that many of their organizations teachings were false, and to demonstrate the true Jesus and the true gospel of the Bible. They disputed within the scripture for a while, but once the weight of the evidence became clear that the Bible taught something very different than what they believed, they blurted out, “but the Bible was written by Men! They could have gotten this stuff wrong!” Now, I am NOT saying that every Jehovah’s Witness would say this when pressed. That is not my point. My point is that, though they claimed, and probably believed, that they had scripture as their foundation of truth, when push came to shove, and the Bible contradicted their beliefs, these two individuals found fault not in their belief, but in the Bible. They had always USED the Bible to support their position, but clearly the Bible was NOT the foundation. It was not the REASON they believed what they did, since even when they found the Bible to disagree with them, they clung to the belief, not the scripture. They “knew” the belief they had was “correct” whether the Bible agreed with it or not! Obviously, that belief was founded on something else. Something else was the ultimate authority. Something else was the real source of spiritual truth. Until that moment, they did not even KNOW that the Bible was not their real foundation, and when I pointed this out, they were ashamed...but none the less they still would not believe what the Bible said was true.


            In my last post, I wrote about the inadequacies of spiritual experience as the foundation for truth. This is, of course, not to say that spiritual experience does not happen. Spiritual experiences are often very real and very powerful, and when it is truly from God, can be very affirming of Biblical truth. The question is, what happens when the experience and the Bible don’t match? Do you reinterpret the Bible in light of what you have experienced, or do you reinterpret what it was that you experienced in light of what is taught in the Bible? There are many foundations that people rely upon for religious truth. Tradition, religious authority figures, philosophy, nature. These things are not evil, and all have their place in the Christian life, but none of them is an adequate foundation on which we can know divine truth. Only the Bible provides a consistent and reliable source from which we can truly know who God is and what He desires. It is the sole foundation of Christian faith.


            Saying that, however, obviously requires me to answer a key question. If I don’t believe the Bible because of experience, or philosophy, or because a religious authority figure affirms its validity, or some other deeper foundation, how, then, DO I know that the Bible is true? If it is indeed the foundation of Christian truth, how do I know that? That is what I intend to explain over my next few posts.

Now, if I jumped immediately into listing evidences for the Bible’s accuracy, I would actually be defeating my real point. If one believes in the Bible simply because it can be supported by facts, reason, and experience (which it can), I would then be saying that those facts, those arguments of reason, and those experiences are the foundation on which the truth of the Bible rests. I would be claiming that the Bible is as true as anything else proven by those same tests, and thus the TEST (Evidence, reason, experience, etc) is the real foundation of truth. But if it is true what the Bible claims about itself in 2 Timothy 3:16, that scripture is actually “breathed from God”, then scripture is not subject to human tests of truth (unless we believe that God might be wrong!) but rather it IS the test of truth, which is Paul’s entire point when he writes this verse. The Bible does not just claim to be true, it also claims to be the test of truth, and it is so because of who it came from. Now, if I stopped here, my reasoning would be painfully circular (the Bible is true because the Bible says it is true). It is, however, important to START with this basic understanding. The Bible is true because it is the Word of God. Its source of truth is nothing less than the Author of Truth. It is not true BECAUSE archeology confirms it, Archeology confirms it BECAUSE it is true! It is not true BECAUSE it has changed so many lives, it has changed so many lives BECAUSE it is true. Charles Spurgeon put it well when he said, “Scripture is like a lion. Who ever heard of defending a lion? Just turn it loose; it will defend itself.” I could also borrow from the reasoning of C.S. Lewis here and say that I believe the Bible “as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” (Lewis was, of course, speaking of Christianity in general, but I believe his logic applies well to the truth of the Christian Scriptures specifically). The evidence of the Bible is plentiful, but it is important that we see the truth of the Bible as the reason for the evidence, never the other way around.

Of course, the idea that truth has been revealed by God in a form than can be understood and reliably passed down from one generation to the next and from one place to another (i.e. the written word) is not unique to the Christian Bible. There are other religious texts that make this kind of a claim. Even if we assume God has done this, why assume that the Bible is the right one? This is a very fair question, and one I will be coming back to throughout this series of posts to really drive home the uniqueness of the Bible in this regard. But It is also important to note that an examination of all major religious texts demonstrates that, if one does assume that God has revealed his will to man in this reasonable and tangible fashion, then it MUST be that the Bible is such a revelation. The Holy texts of the eastern religions, such as the Hindu Vedas or the Pali Cannon of Buddhism, don’t claim this kind of divine origin (nor could they in their pantheistic world view). The Pali Cannon, for example, is supposedly a collection of the teachings of Buddha and some of his more enlightened students, but it claims only to be the wisdom of a very enlightened man. Buddha would have adamantly denied that he received this information from a divine being. It was what he learned from his own spiritual journey. The same is true of the Taoist texts of China. These are “scriptures” in the vague sense of being revered writings of major religions, but they do not claim to be at all the same sort of revelation or communication of absolute truth from God that the Bible claims to be. Most ancient religious texts in the west may claim to be telling ABOUT gods revealing things, but they do not go so far as to claim to BE divine revelation. They claim to be writings of men who witnessed events of a spiritual nature and wrote about them. There are, however, a few other texts that DO claim to be revealed by God, and to be his very word. Interestingly, each of these (such as the Quran or The Book of Mormon) claims that the Bible is also Divine revelation. So even if you assumed that these other texts WERE “God Breathed” they would leave you having to deal with the Bible being such as well. People of such religions typically deal with this by claiming that the Bible WAS truly God’s word, but has since been corrupted, and that what truth does remain in it is misinterpreted by Christians anyway. These objections will be dealt with in later posts, but it is sufficient to say at this point that if there is any scripture at all, then the Bible is indeed scripture.

           So, having hopefully set the stage, let’s look at the assurance we can have that God has given us a firm foundation for truth in the enduring and inspired collection of written documents that we know of as “The Bible.” In my next post we will look at Scripture and the world of Archeology and Historical Studies as it relates to Biblical reliability.


- Luke