Thundering Voices

I'm not sure that I could say I have a favorite actor, but if I had to pick one I think Liam Neeson would be right at or near the top of the list. This comes to mind because I recently heard Neeson on a radio interview. I've always loved his work (in fact my desire to see the movie A-Team is mostly because of him) but, after listening to the interview, I began to wonder why my attention was so well kept by him when he wasn't overly funny or entertaining. I think part of it is due to the fact that I like his movies so when he talked about his experience in doing certain scenes it was interesting. But there is no doubt in my mind that his voice was a big reason my interest wasn't altered during the 10 minute segment.

That's something we hardly think about, though Hollywood knows it has an effect on us. A man with such a voice as Neeson can have a presence like non-other. Just think of the roles the man has been chosen to play in the past 10+ years. In the first prequel of Star Wars he played Qui Gon Jin, the wise mentor to Obi Wan Kenobi. In Batman Begins he was Bruce Wayne's tutor of sorts. He was also chosen to be the voice of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia movie series. And, of course, his movie taken gives us the following speech (beginning at about the 22 second mark):



Apparently a good enough voice can communicate wisdom, make one sound trustworthy, and ignite fear in one's adversaries.

But as good a voice as Neeson may have, it isn't worth an echo of the voice of his Creator. Though God speaks to us today by His written Word and through the agent of the Holy Spirit, it is not because He lacks a voice.

One magnificent example of the voice of the Lord that we find in Scripture is in John 12:

"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.' Then a voice came from heaven: 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.' The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, 'An angel has spoken to him." (27-29)

I'm not sure what amazes me more, the Father speaking audibly with a beautiful voice like that of an angel or the people attributing such beauty to thunder. But there are two things that are more important than this (1) who is speaking and (2) what He is saying.

You see- in the end, guys like Liam Neeson, Morgan Freemon, and James Earl Jones can sound as trustworthy as they want. The Lord, on the other hand, is exactly as He sounds: powerful, pure, and perfect. What we hear in these other men is the echo of the truly perfect One who spoke the world into existence.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen

High Five- Soli Deo Gloria

So far we have looked at the first four solas at the reformation. We have seen that Scripture alone is the source of equipping our minds for life in the faith. We have seen that our salvation is by grace alone, that we are justified by faith alone and that this happens because of the work of Christ alone. But now, as we address the fifth sola, it is as if we are asking the question that every 5 year old asks, “why?” Why does He save us? And, why does He save us in this way?



The answer is Soli Deo Gloria. For the glory of God alone. It would be impossible to attempt to go in depth on this topic. Volumes have been written on the fact that God does all things in order to bring glory to Himself. But in this post I want to keep our focus on Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) and show how salvation is the chief means by which God glorifies Himself. Even this will be surface level but hopefully it gives us all a moment to glory in the cross of Christ.

1. We are saved by his glory.

There are two ways in which we are saved by His glory; his perfect life of righteousness and his death of atonement.

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. (John 17:4)

This is part of Jesus’ prayer just before the passion section of John. As we will see in the next portion Jesus is about to display the glory of God in a way we never could have imagined. But it should not be lost on us that Jesus’ work throughout his life was also his glory. It is this righteous life that will be credited to the account of every Christian. It is this teaching that sustains us in our Christian walk.

But now it gets better…

And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:23-24)

When I stop and think about this fact I am utterly amazed. The glory of God in Christ Jesus is the act that saved me. In the verse cited above we see it clearly. As D.A. Carson writes:

“It is not just that the shame of the cross is inevitably followed by the glory of the exaltation, but that the glory is already fully displayed in the shame. “(The Gospel According to John, 437)

He then goes on to connect this passage to Isaiah 53:12:
Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
2. We are saved to His glory.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 4:6)

It is easy for me to lose sight of this point. God has not only saved me from hell to heaven, He saved me to Himself and His glory. Let me say that again, He saved me to His glory. That assumes something huge, namely, that people find some sort of joy in the glory of God. Outside of the Bible no text has put this point more concisely than the Westminster Shorter Catechism which says that the chief end of man is “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Dr. John Piper, however, has expounded this point by rephrasing man’s chief end as “[glorifying God] by enjoying Him forever.” Or as he most commonly summarizes, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

It is always nice to hear from men like Piper and the Westminster Divines but it is better to focus our attention on the text of Scripture here. 2 Corinthians 4 pictures man, blinded by Satan to the truth of the gospel and the glory of God. Yet God, in His mercy, causes light in our hearts to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus. What does that create? Faith! Saving faith comes from beholding the glory of Christ and clinging to it for salvation. Thus, we are saved to the glory of God.

3. We are saved for His glory.

In [Christ] we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11-12)

After seeing the first two points this one seems pretty straight-forward. But perhaps it is this point that we need more than the others. Did God save you because there was something in you that made you irresistible to Him? Was it because of your sincerity? Did Jesus die so that there would be a way to God just in case somebody decided to take the narrow road? Not according to Scripture. What we see here in Ephesians is God lovingly choosing to save some, by the work of Christ, in order that He would have a people who see and savor His glory.

In the end what we will see is a saved people from every nation singing the praises of their savior:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12)

Glory to God

For a child one of the hardest realizations is that not everything is about them. The same is for believers when we find that we are not the cener of everything. God isn’t for our glory. Its not about us at all. in fact in Romans 1 Paul even says in his greeting “1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,”.

We are made for something greater that our minds could ever conger up or dream on its own. Its not like when we were kids realizing that the world doesn’t revolve around us. This message it amazing becaus its the realization that the world has a far better reason for exsisting than if it was all about us.
Here are some sobering beautiful passages.



made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. (Jeremiah 13:11)
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. (John 7:l8)
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16; cf. 1 Peter 2:12)
Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:7)
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (l Corinthians 10:31
From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)
acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. (Ezekiel 20:l4)

Judging (Part 2)

Dave Swavely writes in Who Are You to Judge? : "In his case of judging in 1 Corinthians 4:3-5, the apostle Paul has called two witnesses so far- The incompleteness of man's judgment (it is seriously limited) and the insubordination of man's judgment (it is a sin of disobedience to God). In verse 5 he call another witness- the inappropriateness of judging."

1 Corinthians 4:5 - "Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God."

Here we see that the Lord is the only qualified Judge. Romans 14:4 - "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand."

He is also the only capable Judge. Hebrews 4:12 - "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

How can one judge another if they do not know the motives behind a persons actions? It is wrong to assume that you know their motives and that is exactly what sinful judging is. Too often we as humans jump to conclusions about everything, before we know anything that happened. We assume that we know everything that goes on in someone's head, but in reality all we see is the action.

Paul writes that God will "bring to light the things now hidden in darkness." That is our heart motives for every action we have ever done. He knows why we do what we do. And He says that on the Judgment Day, God will bring them to light. He will make them known and "each one will receive commendation from God." God alone will judge our hearts.

Dave Swavely gives an example of what could happen to someone who judges falsely and then stands before the Lord:

"I don't want to stand under the fiery glare of our holy God, and hear Him say to me, 'Did you think that this child of mine was wrong in what he did, and criticize him to other?'

'Y-y-yes, Lord,' I will have to answer, with a gulp.

'Well, I did not think he was wrong at all! Nothing in My Bible said what he did was wrong, and I happen to know that his heart was right, which makes Me quite pleased with him. So the only person who was wrong in that situation was you!'"

Do you want to be known as a judgmental person? Someone who tries to blame others of false motives? God will judge those who judge. Do you think He will be please that we think that we can accurately do His job? I don't want to be known as someone who thinks that He can take God's place as the true Judge. You may not think you are when you judge, but in your heart you think that you know what only God knows.

Lord, humble us. Put us in our place as servants willingly submitting, and not constantly trying to ineffectively overthrow You. Give us strength to fight against this sin of Judging. Thank you for Christ and His work that has abolished sin for Your glory!

What are words?

Part 1 of the series I am attempting to do was Just a little Babel and at the end I posed a question.
I hope at the end of this one we can get some dialogue because I would like the discussion to help shape part 3.

There are many questions that run through my curious mind about different things, but one in-particular thing lately has nagged at me a bit longer than usual. Where do words get their meaning? How does a culture go from have one very vulgar term one day to 20 years later it is a term flippantly used by children. At what point does the Christ follower have to shut down certain speech even though its widely accepted or un accepted?

Recently I listened to a sermon by Matt Chandler (warning if you are from Australia this next story could be considered offensive) where he spoke about his trip to Australia where he was doing some preaching. He was in the middle of talking at a conference and needed to use the word fanny pack to explain a nerdy type of guy. The crowd immediately gasped and he then was faced with trying to figure out what the problem was. In the process though he continued to say the word that was offending the crowd. So at what point does culture define a word, and yet we are to have Colossians 3:8 in mind.

This question came from a few years of hearing the argument “You can say what ever words you want. Words only have the meaning that you give to them”. This mixed with a Derek Webb song titled “what matters more”, where he cusses. Comments were made about the song such as “I thought with all the controversy that he would have said something a lot worse than that” and “he's trying to make a point and needs the shock value. These blended together with the Tower of Babel and James 3:3-12 in my study.

In James 3 we see that the tongue is a desirable thing to tame and control (I'm not there yet and according to James it itsn't looking great for the future either). This means that the words you speak come with meaning. Jesus unpacks this even further. In Mark 15:17-18 Jesus says that the words that come from our mouth are generated by our hearts. So regardless of the actual words you speak it might not be a bad idea to search the source first and hen the dictionary.

So where does the Christian draw the line? Is it with Derek Webb like soft cussing? Or is it ok to use cussing or foul speech if you don't mean it in anger? Is it ok to use it to get attention? Is it ok to use any words to express anger?

I ask these questions with Colossians 3:17 in mind. Not to hold fast to tradition or relevance. But simply to ask why do we hold so tightly to a “freedom” to use “any” words that we desire if the impact could be someone stumbling. I have seen even pastors fight for their right to use light cussing to be relevant rather than to use another term which has the same meaning (which brings up another point for some. Why is it ok to use one word and not another if they mean the same), and not to be bogged down by legalism. But for what cause do we do this.

I have a few rules for discussion: 1. No cursing, if you feel the need to use inappropriate words then hold off on comments or email me. 2. If you don't want to comment on the blog you can facebook me or twitter. 3. look through the lens of Colossians 3:17.

I pray discussion is productive and glorifying to Christ. Part 3 will be the unpacking of this topic and words for the Glory of Christ.

Love the Lord your God

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

-Mark 12:30

So much could be said concerning this verse and others like it; but a simple question is this: do I love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength? Is my desire that everything I do be done in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:12)? This ties in closely with 1 Corinthians 10:31, which says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”.

As children of God, we are a people who have been redeemed. We are not our own, for we have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Our hearts are now God’s. Our souls now belong to the Lord. Our minds are now His possession. Our strength is now for His purposes. All of who we are is now to be used by our Maker for His glory.

We are to present all of our desires, affections, imagination, and might in love to the One who has loved us from eternity past. Our worship is to submit all of who we are to the service of the King to be used for His glory. This is only done through the power and love that He bestows upon us.

If only we could fully understand the beauty of this!

If only we could fully understand the joy and freedom of this!

Praise be to God that He offers forgiveness for when we foolishly lose sight of how worthy and wonderful He is. I am so quick to set my affections and my joy too heavily upon lesser things! I am so quick to lose focus on the highest of joys: our Savior! It is, sadly, too easy to let my mind wander into worthless pursuits. I am so quick to pour my strength and passion into that which is not of the Lord.

God has demonstrated a love beyond measure to us; how could we not strive to give Him all that we are? The Father sent his only Son to die and rise again so that we could be forgiven. How could we not willingly and freely give ourselves to Him in love?

"...any good-hearted goal, without the desire to give people eternal joy in God, is condemnation with a kind face." John Piper

For the month of october i have been reading through John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life. When i read the above quote i was basically slapped in the face. This is so blunt, so honest...and so true. This can range from the good intention of building a relationship with people, that you work with for example, so that you can tell them about Christ but never actually do because you don't want to be met with criticism or come off as "judgemental" or you just don't really know what to say (which i personally am guilty of). All the way to well meaning organizations that feed, clothe, and shelter impoverished families all the way around the globe.

I remember working with a girl for a while at a restaurant and we had built a pretty good relationship. One night a table was keeping her there pretty late. I could hear the conversation and turns out the lady at the table was telling her about jesus. i remember being annoyed with this woman because to me she was being inconsiderate by holding this waitress up and she had never met my friend before in her life, therefore butting into business that wasn't her right to know. When i told my fiance, now my husband, later on that night i could not stop crying over his response. He said in that moment, this woman loved my coworker more than i had, because she shared the gospel with her...something i had never done in all my time of knowing her. And he was right.


If we truly loved people and thirsted for souls to be won to Christ, we aren't glorifying God by being silent. So love people by telling them about Christ.

Grace and Peace.