I heard a familiar passage on my way to work this morning and it got me thinking.
In Exodus 17, we read about how the Israelites were thirsty in the desert with no water to drink. They got mad at Moses, Moses asked God what to do, and God told Moses to strike the rock. Moses obeyed and water came rushing out.
Then in Numbers 20, we find the same situation again. Thirsty Israelites murmuring and complaining to Moses. Moses goes to God, and God tells him to SPEAK to the rock. However, Moses disobeyed and struck the rock with his rod as before. Water flowed, but Moses was disallowed from entering into the Promised Land.
This story is rich with foreshadowing. The rock is a picture of Christ Jesus. The Promised Land is a picture of heaven. When Moses struck the rock the first time and water flowed out, it was a picture of the crucifixion.
The rock only needed to be struck once; then it only needed to be spoken too. Jesus was crucified once, and that was more than sufficient and now we only need to speak to Him for forgiveness of sins, healing for our brokenness, and the water of everlasting life.
But there are many who live dangerously and continue to strike the rock again and again and again. Hebrews 6:4-6 says "For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (5) And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, (6) If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame."
In essence, this passage is saying "Those who turn away from God after walking with Him crucify Christ all over again." Many Christians would say "Oh, but that's not me. I haven't turned away from God." But consider...
Galatians 3:10 - "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." In short, Paul is saying that if you choose to live under the law rather than by faith in the redemptive work of Christ, you are cursed because it is impossible for man to keep all of the 613 commandments in the Old Testament.
Galatians 1:8 - "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." What is Paul talking about here? If anyone preaches any gospel other than Christ Jesus, he is cursed. The belief that you need to accept Christ AND keep the law is just that; another gospel. It is a gospel other than what Christ Jesus and the New Testament laid out for us. It is striking the rock.
When we add to the redemptive work of the cross by believing we have to attain righteousness by the law also, we are striking the rock when we need only to speak to it. We are disobeying God's word and crucifying our savior all over again. We are saying that His grace isn't sufficient and that we have to attain salvation by our good works. That is a false gospel and a very, very dangerous one.
Moses struck the rock when he only needed to speak to it, and he wasn't allowed into the Promised Land because of it. I don't know about you, but that is a sobering thought. If we strike the rock instead of speak to it; if we add to the gospel by believing "law + grace" instead of putting our absolute faith in the final, redemptive work of Christ at Calvary; we are cursed; we can't enter the Promised Land. (Don't get mad at me; get mad at Paul the Apostle!)
As kind of a rabbit trail, I've also pondered why we do this? Why do we as humans try and take the work of redemption on ourselves rather than leaving it up to the grace of God? I think at the end of the day, it boils down to the root of all human sin; pride. If we can get to heaven by "accepting Christ AND keeping the law" we've "earned" our salvation; we've done OUR part. When really, we have no part. We have grace. And grace is all we need. But we humans have this tendency to make everything about ourselves; we love to feel important. But when it comes to salvation, we are insignificant; it's all about Him and what He did on the cross for us. Anything more than that is sin.
READING FOR THE DAY:
Matthew 9:10-13
Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatians 3
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
My latest sermon uploaded
I got my sermon from Saturday night uploaded. Feel free to give it a listen. It's called "Daddy, Fix It." Feel free to stream, download, and share with your friends and family. God bless!
Click HERE to check it out.
Click HERE to check it out.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Reflections
I am playing worship at a youth camp in Sun Valley at the end of this month. I'm really excited about it. Last night I was on Facebook and came across some pictures of the facilities up there...and it's beautiful. One shot of of a log-cabin style building instantly took me back to my childhood.
Every August from as early as I can remember meant campmeeting. Our church would hold an old-fashioned tent revival church camp every August in Smith's Ferry, Idaho. The services were done in a big tent and the log-cabin church was used for prayer meetings and bathrooms. God always moved in awesome, wondrous ways. I can remember seeing the crippled get up out of their wheelchairs and walk. One year there was even a man miraculously healed during a heart attack. Brother Gene Haskins. Towards the end of an evening service he started having a heart attack. He stumbled up to the front, and immediately a bunch of guys held him up and began praying. All of a sudden, the threw both hands up in the air and started praising God and running around.
For those who've never been around this type of thing, I'm sure I sound like a loon. I like to think that I'm a skeptical person, not just accepting everything as something from God. But I've known this man practically my whole life. I saw the fear on his face, the paleness of his skin. I watched him stumble forward. I knew about his heart condition prior to this miraculous event. And I watched as God healed him.
So the question to be asked; does God still move like that? Why did such amazing healings, signs and wonders occur at church camp but don't seem to happen all that often today? My answer; they occasionally do, and the frequency could dramatically increase if we understood why campmeeting was so uniquely special. The reason is faith and expectation.
Man, God has taught me a ton about faith over the last few years. My definition of the word has been COMPLETELY overhauled several times, and I think I'm finally figuring out what it is. But that's fodder for another blog post; or perhaps an entire book (although many books on the topic have already been written and the book of a completely different topic I've started working on has only seen 5 pages written in the last 6 months). But campmeeting was amazing and powerful because we had faith and expectation that it was going to be.
People came to church camp with one purpose in mind; renewing their physical and spiritual selves. Mornings and evenings were spent receiving the Word and God's spiritual blessings. Days and nights were filled with fellowship, laughter, and food. Oh man...food. Ol' Brother Boots Shell used to make a buckaroo breakfast every year on Friday morning, the last day of church camp. He was an authentic cowboy. And he made some of the best sourdough pancakes I've ever eaten. Then there was the abundance of hot dogs and ketchup after the evening service, roasted over a fire.
Then all of us kids would play hide and seek in the dark around the playground area. And of course, you can't have teenage kids in the dark without romance. Matter of fact, I had my first kiss at church camp. But I digress...
People got away from the hustle and bustle of life. It's almost impossible to be stressed out when you leave the rat race and get up into the pines and mountains and see all the beauty God created. When people got away and left the busyness and stressfulness of life behind them in the valley and came up to meet with God, God always met with them.
God is no respecter of persons, and I would dare step out and say that He's no respecter of places either. I think we can have the same campmeeting experiences, both individually and corporately, if we would put aside the busyness and stressfulness of life and come to God with an expectation of refreshing, renewing, and the miraculous.
I don't think this has any spiritual significance, but campmeeting ended about the time I graduated high school and we haven't had one since. It's kind of an odd, sad coincidence that something that so perfectly exemplified my youth ended about the time that I "came of age."
Every August from as early as I can remember meant campmeeting. Our church would hold an old-fashioned tent revival church camp every August in Smith's Ferry, Idaho. The services were done in a big tent and the log-cabin church was used for prayer meetings and bathrooms. God always moved in awesome, wondrous ways. I can remember seeing the crippled get up out of their wheelchairs and walk. One year there was even a man miraculously healed during a heart attack. Brother Gene Haskins. Towards the end of an evening service he started having a heart attack. He stumbled up to the front, and immediately a bunch of guys held him up and began praying. All of a sudden, the threw both hands up in the air and started praising God and running around.
For those who've never been around this type of thing, I'm sure I sound like a loon. I like to think that I'm a skeptical person, not just accepting everything as something from God. But I've known this man practically my whole life. I saw the fear on his face, the paleness of his skin. I watched him stumble forward. I knew about his heart condition prior to this miraculous event. And I watched as God healed him.
So the question to be asked; does God still move like that? Why did such amazing healings, signs and wonders occur at church camp but don't seem to happen all that often today? My answer; they occasionally do, and the frequency could dramatically increase if we understood why campmeeting was so uniquely special. The reason is faith and expectation.
Man, God has taught me a ton about faith over the last few years. My definition of the word has been COMPLETELY overhauled several times, and I think I'm finally figuring out what it is. But that's fodder for another blog post; or perhaps an entire book (although many books on the topic have already been written and the book of a completely different topic I've started working on has only seen 5 pages written in the last 6 months). But campmeeting was amazing and powerful because we had faith and expectation that it was going to be.
People came to church camp with one purpose in mind; renewing their physical and spiritual selves. Mornings and evenings were spent receiving the Word and God's spiritual blessings. Days and nights were filled with fellowship, laughter, and food. Oh man...food. Ol' Brother Boots Shell used to make a buckaroo breakfast every year on Friday morning, the last day of church camp. He was an authentic cowboy. And he made some of the best sourdough pancakes I've ever eaten. Then there was the abundance of hot dogs and ketchup after the evening service, roasted over a fire.
Then all of us kids would play hide and seek in the dark around the playground area. And of course, you can't have teenage kids in the dark without romance. Matter of fact, I had my first kiss at church camp. But I digress...
People got away from the hustle and bustle of life. It's almost impossible to be stressed out when you leave the rat race and get up into the pines and mountains and see all the beauty God created. When people got away and left the busyness and stressfulness of life behind them in the valley and came up to meet with God, God always met with them.
God is no respecter of persons, and I would dare step out and say that He's no respecter of places either. I think we can have the same campmeeting experiences, both individually and corporately, if we would put aside the busyness and stressfulness of life and come to God with an expectation of refreshing, renewing, and the miraculous.
I don't think this has any spiritual significance, but campmeeting ended about the time I graduated high school and we haven't had one since. It's kind of an odd, sad coincidence that something that so perfectly exemplified my youth ended about the time that I "came of age."
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