Highly Fed

This Sunday I will be teaching out of one of the most unusual books in the entire Bible.  What makes the eighth century BC prophet Hosea so unusual is that God used the tragic circumstances of his personal life to teach Israel a lesson about their unfaithfulness.  The book opens by explaining that Hosea's wife was unfaithful to him even to the extent that she became a prostitute.  The prophet proclaimed that his own personal tragedy paralleled the disobedience and unfaithfulness of God's people.  Although it was written eight centuries before the time of Jesus, the book is surprisingly relevant to us moderns.  For instance, think of the circumstances surrounding Israel and Judah during the time of Hosea:

• Their relative prosperity resulted in a kind of ambivalence to biblical faith.
• As they embraced neighboring cultures and engaged in economic trade their sense of identity in traditional moral values gave way to foreign influences. 
• Those foreign influences led to religious syncretism and acceptance of many different forms of religious expression as being equally valid to biblical faith. 

God used Hosea to awaken His people to the perilous situation they were facing.  The prophet warned them that just like his prostitute wife, they had left their true love in favor of substitute gods who would bring them only heartache and decline.  Aside from some of the obvious cultural parallels to our own culture, there are some great personal applications here.

A couple of things stand out to me as I read Hosea. 

First, the word used to describe the unfaithfulness of Gomer (Hosea's wife) in the original language is packed with meaning.   It is the word "zanah" in Hebrew.  The word is often translated as "prostitute" or  "whore" or "whoring" in the Bible and almost always refers to promiscuous behavior.   

Of course the obvious implication is that just as a spouse feels intense personal betrayal and dismay because of marital unfaithfulness, so God is heartbroken over our rebellion against him.   It says something very profound to us about God's love for us.  But it also says something very interesting to us about the nature of our sin.

Second, what makes this word particularly interesting is it's root meaning.  At it's root the word means "highly fed".  

How is it that a word that originally meant "highly fed" could come to mean adulterous or promiscuous behavior?  The only plausible explanation is that the core of our sinful nature is our inability to say no to our own appetites.   Our problem isn't so much bad desire for evil things as it is over desire for good things. 

Contained within the root meaning of this word that is used to warn Israel of their unfaithfulness are many important principles that are helpful:

• Our biggest problem is our tendency to find satisfaction and meaning outside of His love and purpose. 
• Always getting what we want is not necessarily the best thing for our soul.  Just like never hearing the word "no" spoils a child, lack of discipline leads to a corrupt spirit.
• The more we believe we can satisfy the longings of our heart on our own, the less likely we are to depend on God's grace.  Highly fed people do not hunger for righteousness.  The most difficult people to reach with the gospel are the ones who believe they can get along just fine without God.  The only way to truly find life is to deny self.  

Jesus is the New and Better Temple

Next Sunday we are celebrating Palm Sunday and will study together the events surrounding the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  I've been thinking this week about His intentionality as He approached the holy city.  He deliberately set his face toward Jerusalem knowing He would die there.  In fact, there are hints the disciples understood the incredible danger Jesus was putting himself in as they journeyed toward Bethany near Jerusalem in the weeks leading up to crucifixion.  Jesus was a marked man at this time.  The religious and political leaders in power had already begun to plot how they would kill him.  It was Thomas who voiced what all the disciples must have been thinking as Jesus announced they were traveling to Bethany:

So Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we might die with him."  (John 11:16)

And yet Jesus was not just going to Jerusalem as a stop along the way.  He seems to have a specific objective that centers on the temple.  His purpose there is revealed in the text we will be studying this Sunday.

When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, ‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”  Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.  Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words. (John 19:45-48)

What are we to make of the fact that Jesus intentionally went to the temple and began stirring things up at a time when people were seeking him out to kill him?  Wouldn't it have made more sense for Jesus to lay low and stay out of the way until the controversy surrounding him died down and the danger had past?  Did Jesus have a death wish?  Was Jesus going to Jerusalem just so He could be crucified or was there a deeper meaning to his journey there?

I think the answer is that Jesus is making the point to us that the meaning of the temple finds fulfillment in His redemptive work.  Notice that Jesus moves into the temple courts and starts rearranging the furniture.

He is proclaiming His authority over the place.

Remember that He had done it once before at the beginning of His ministry in John 2.  In that event He told the onlookers "Destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it again." (John 2:19)  This statement is a direct foreshadowing of his death and resurrection and a direct correlation of that event fulfilling the meaning of temple.

The work of Jesus fulfills the temple in the following ways:

1. The temple embodies the presence of God.  John 1:14 tells us that in Jesus we have "God's dwelling" among us.  The literal translation of dwelling is "tabernacle".   God's incarnation has now come to us in full fruition with the coming of Jesus.  As long as the tabernacle stood, it was reminder that the messiah had not yet come.

2.  Through Christ and His work, a new temple is being built up in us.  (1 Corinthians 3:16)

3.  The temple was constructed in a way to keep people out.  But now because of the work of Christ, all people are invited in, and those who call upon His name are "grafted in". (Eph 2:15,19)

4.  We were once separated from God by our sin, but now in Christ the curtain has been torn in two and a new and living way has opened up to us.  (Hebrews 10:19-20)

5.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the vision of Ezekiel who saw a new spiritual temple out of which rivers of living water would flow.  (Ezekiel 47:1; John 7:37-38)

So when we think of Jesus trip to Jerusalem and His subsequent visit to the temple in light of what we now know about His redemptive work within the context of hundreds of years of sacrifices at the temple; and we see now that all of that pointed to the day when the unblemished Lamb of God would be slain and the temple work would be fulfilled, it becomes more clear to us now that Jesus was making a very specific and important statement by walking into Jerusalem and going straight to the temple.

Jesus was not just throwing a temper tantrum.  He was making the point that He is the new and better temple!

Unless the Lord Builds the House

This week Teri and I joined about 3500 others from around the world for the 61st annual National Prayer Breakfast.  It was great to get to know the Oklahoma delegation (mostly from Tulsa it turns out) and to connect with an eclectic group of business leaders, politicians and spiritual leaders who have come together to lift up the name of Jesus and to come together for prayer for our country.  How great to be in one place with a wide community of believers from all over the world.  Here are a few of my takeaways from the actual prayer breakfast and from some of the events surrounding it.

The first observation I would make is that in Washington D.C. there is an overwhelming sense of unshakeable and unrelenting power.  When you walk among those gigantic marble buildings with their huge pillars and Greco-Roman statutes looking down from above, you get the idea they will stand forever.  They seem unmoveable and steadfast.  Of course this is exactly what they are meant to communicate and there is a sense that as Americans we want to believe in the stability and sustainability of our institutions.  But there is also the unsteady sense that the government "by the people and for the people" can easily become more about power and less about people.  The architecture here in Washington communicates bigness and therefore by contrast communicates how small you are in comparison.

But our founding fathers mistrusted the power of government as a matter of philosophical conviction and first hand experience.  George Washington put it succinctly,

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force.  Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.

His words are both a warning and a lesson.

The warning is that each of us as citizens has a responsibility to participate in our government so as to keep it in check.  "A democracy is dependent upon an informed electorate"  Dr. Benjamin Carson reminded the audience on Thursday morning at the main event.  

The lesson is that there is no guarantee that our personal freedoms will always be preserved.  The role of government is to protect and insure individual liberty and to uphold the rule of law. When government functions in this way it is an enormous blessing.  When it fails to do this it is a horrible curse.  The reason government is a dangerous servant is because it is by it's very nature hungry for power.  It has an enormous appetite that can seem impossible to satisfy.  Scripture teaches us to have both respect and fear for government. 

There is a warning found in the story of the Israelites. The original migration of the children of Isaac into Egypt was to seek protection, security and grain.  But it only took a few generations before the entire nation was living in slavery. The Bible is warning us that a just and orderly government that protects and feeds it's people may only be a few generations away from becoming it's fearsome master.  

But just as our government can become a fearsome master, it can also become a worthless servant.  We had dinner on our last night with a pastor from Liberia Africa who gave me a succinct and dramtic illustration of this very truth.  He told us that his country was originally founded by freed slaves who desired to bring biblical principles to bear on a new country in their homeland.  But in just one generation the government had become so corrupt a civil war broke out and large numbers of people were swept into the violence.  This tiny African nation has been plagued by one inept government after another resulting in civil wars, violence, pestilence and death.  

The pastor came from a poor family that lived in a remote village.  His single mother did what she could to protect her children but in the end she was beaten to death by revolutionaries while her children were off at school.  As he talked of the horrors he and his family has suffered I couldn't help but think of what a wonder it has been to live in a place where I have never felt the unsettling fear that my government was not functioning to the degree that it could hold up the rule of law.  It is truly a precious gift that must be protected and valued.  

As Christians we are to seek to spread the gospel and to bring about His redemptive work to those who are weak and powerless.  But we are also to remember that we are stewards over what God has given us as citizens of this country.  

The second observation I would make is that the genius of our government is not so much in it's structure but in the process that keeps it in check.  Our governmental system is absolutely dependent upon an electorate that is both educated and moral.  Walking around the halls of congress and in the library of congress I was struck by all the symbols representing the philosophies and ideals that have shaped our understanding of justice and morality.   

For instance, there are 33 relief portrait plagues that surround the hallowed hall of the House of Representatives each representing various men of history who have influenced the formation of our system of law.  In the front of the room above the elevated desk of the Speaker of the House is the marble engraving "In God We Trust".  

Each of the engraved portraits are profiles facing toward the center of the room, all looking toward the center portrait. The center portrait is the only one that is not a profile but is looking forward toward the front of the room, facing the speakers chair.  It is the face of Moses.  

The affect of the symbolism of the design of the room is clear:  all of our laws have emulated from the Ten Commandments.  

The architects and designers of this grand hall had a core belief as did the architects of our constitution that this republic could only thrive if those who participated in it had a moral conviction that was guided by a strong belief in a higher authority.  Without a strong sense of morality and divine goodness there is no particular reason to conform to societal law.   

Much more important than the laws written into constitutional archives and congressional records, are the laws that are written onto the human heart that coincide with our understanding of His sense of justice and truth. (Jeremiah 31:33)  

Because I had spent some time in the weeks prior to my trip to Washington touring around ancient Roman ruins all over Israel I had a unique historical context.  The empire of Rome once seemed to be indestructible, immovable and unchangeable.  

But today those ruins are a testimony to the frailty of human institutions. The Roman empire was conquered not by military might but by moral decay.  So walking among those magnificent buildings and looking up at those tremendous symbols of our nations splendor and might with the memory of ancient Roman close at hand I couldn't help but think of Psalms 127:1:

Unless the Lord builds the house it's builders labor in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stand guard in vain. 

Piper on How God Used MLK to Change Us

I remember the first time I heard Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.   I was in my first year at seminary in Fort Worth and went to the library and checked out the tape and listened to it for a class I was taking. Keep in mind this was way before the internet when audios like this were a click away.   The speech was not readily available- you had to look for it and find a tape recording of it.  Fortunately, I had access to an extensive seminary library that had a large media section.  I had not heard the speech before in it's entirety.  They would not allow me to take it out of the library so I sat down at one of the school tape players with headphones and clicked play.

 I was mesmerized.

I listened to it over and over again.  It was one of those experiences that convinced me of how God can use the gift of communication to change the course of societies.  MLK was a man for his time and he was used mightily.  Regardless of what you might think of his politics or theology, God used him to change our nation forever.

I enjoyed reading John Piper's thoughts on King today:

The racial world I grew up in and the one we live in today are amazingly different. Racism remains in many forms in America and around the world. But in the days of my youth the segregation was almost absolute and the defense of it was overt and ugly, without shame.

• In 1954, seventeen states required segregated public schools;                
• In 1956, 85% of all white southerners rejected the statement, “White students and Negro students should go to the same schools”;                
• 73% said that there should be “separate sections for Negros on streetcars and buses”;               
• 62% did not want a Negro “with the same income and education” as them to move into their neighborhood;                
• In 1963, 82% of all white southerners opposed a federal law that would give “all persons, Negros well as white, the right to be served in public places such as hotels, restaurants, and similar establishments”; 
• And in 1952 (when I was six years old), only 20% of southern blacks of voting age were registered to vote. 

The upshot of those statistics was an unjust, unsafe, condescending, unwelcoming, demeaning, and humiliating world for blacks. Have you ever paused to ask yourself what separate water fountains and separate restrooms could possibly mean except: You are unclean — like lepers. It was an appalling world. 

Between that racially appalling world and this racially imperfect one strode Martin Luther King. We don’t know if the world would have changed without him, but we do know he was a rod in the hand of God. Leave aside his theology and his moral flaws. He was used in the mighty hand of Providence to change the world so that the most appalling, blatant, degrading, public expressions of racism have gone away. 

For that, this MLK day is worthy of our thankful reckoning. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life to change the world. And toward the end he was increasingly aware that “the Movement” would cost him his life. The night before he was assassinated by James Earl Ray outside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968, he preached at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple. He had come to Memphis to support the black sanitation workers. 

His message came to be called “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” He began it by surveying world history in response to God's question: “When would you have liked to be alive?” King answered, “If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will be happy.” Why? Because “I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men in some strange way are responding. Something is happening in our world.” 

What was happening? “We are determined to be men. We are determined to be people.” We are standing up. “A man can't ride your back unless it is bent.” For a brief window of time — just long enough — MLK was able to use his voice to restrain violence and overcome hate: “We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces. 

They don't know what to do.” He kindled a kind of fire that no dogs could quench and no fire hoses could put out.

It was “a dangerous kind of unselfishness.” Like the Good Samaritan. “The Levite asked, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’ That's the question before you tonight.” 

A dangerous unselfishness. 

So dangerous it would cost MLK his life. And he saw it coming. That morning there was a bomb threat on his plane from Atlanta to Memphis. He felt it coming. So he closed his sermon prophetically:

We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life — longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Ten hours later he was dead. My world was changed forever. And I am thankful.

Radical Growth

This coming Sunday my new book "Radical Growth" will be available at CRBC.

As a pastor I’ve struggled to find a concise and effective way of explaining the process of spiritual growth.  How does one know when he or she is spiritually mature?  What does maturity look like?  How does a person graduate into the fullness in Christ the Bible describes?  The problem, I’ve come to realize, is that spiritual growth is not a stagnant process at all.  There is no well-defined beginning, middle and ending to the procedure of Christian maturity.   It is a process that happens more organically than organizationally.  It doesn’t occur as the result of a well-organized structured program.   It is more metamorphosis than methodology.  

I have found that spiritual growth occurs in much the same way a child grows into adulthood.  There are signs along the way that growth is happening, but the process itself is dynamic and gradual.  There are spurts of growth that occur as the result of circumstances or seasons that can’t be defined or neatly understood and in the same way there are regressions and setbacks that make one wonder if growth will ever occur at all.

            

The most common language the Bible uses to describe the Christian life is biological language.  I believe there is a significant reason for this.  I believe the Bible is teaching us that just as our physical growth is dynamic and organic, our spiritual growth has the same characteristic.  That is the purpose of this book.  It applies biblical language to describe this maturing process and discusses the basic beliefs, disciplines and virtues of the Christian life that are essential to that process.

It describes the five specific terms and biblical metaphors scripture uses in this kind of growth process.  The terms are “seed”, “soil”, “root”, “vine” and “fruit”.  These biological metaphors describe the life cycle that occurs naturally in physical nature and how they apply to our spiritual growth, and therefore are helpful in understanding how we are to grow in Christ. 

            
The process is what I call “radical growth” because the term "radical" means "rooted".  I believe this is the most effective way to describe this dynamic growth process. It is the kind of growth that occurs as a result of the believers rootedness in the doctrines, disciplines and virtues of the faith.  But it describes not so much a discipleship method as it does the biblical principles related to our natural spiritual growth.   My purpose in this book is not to give simply the literal applications to the meanings of these words, but to draw our attention to the larger categories they each describe.   This book can be used as a path to personal discipleship or as one on one or group Bible Study.  Each chapter utilizes specific scripture references and each section of the book comes with a list of discussion questions.  

The book will be available online and at amazon.com soon but if you would like an advance copy email me at info@councilroad.org and I will be glad to send you a copy.